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Earlier this year, the University of Tampa was named a top producer of Fulbright awardees for the second time in a row when three Spartans were selected to participate in the U.S. government’s top international exchange program.

We caught up with them to hear about their experiences and get their advice for students who want to follow in their scholarly, globe-trotting footsteps.

Jillian Phillips ’25: Canada

When the decision from Fulbright arrived in Jillian Phillips’ inbox, her heart sank. She had already graduated, was interning at General Electric Vernova in Rochester, New York, and felt certain the late notification meant bad news.

“I went to the bathroom, closed the door and opened the email,” she said. “And I just remember having this huge grin across my face.”

She had earned a Graduate Studies Award and was on her way to the University of Calgary for a master’s degree in data science and analytics. Phillips completed the one-year degree program in August. “I was able to specialize in financial and energy data modelling, which is exactly what I was looking for,” she said.

Phillips started her academic career at UTampa as a marketing major but credits faculty members like Assistant Professor John Oruongo and Assistant Teaching Professor Michael Baker with helping her recognize strengths in management information systems. Associate Professor Lisa Monahan helped her gain confidence in her abilities, which she carried with her throughout her Fulbright and multiple internship experiences.

When it came to the Fulbright application, Phillips spent a lot of time with Ed Pompeian, chair of history, geography and legal studies, crafting the wording for it. “I think we went through six drafts of the application,” she said.

Her advice to students interested in Fulbright is to focus more on the opportunity best suited to their career than the actual location. “Canada doesn’t seem like the most exciting Fulbright choice,” she said. “But I wanted to go into the energy industry, and this was the right steppingstone in my career.”

Jasmine Villavicencio ’24: Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea

Jasmine Villavicencio thought her career would be spent helping people in healthcare. In high school, she already was a certified nursing assistant. On a volunteer spring break trip abroad, she realized that she could make a difference in people’s lives and also indulge her love of travel.

At UTampa, she majored in international relations with minors in Spanish, history and applied linguistics, which included teaching English to speakers of other languages. As a sophomore, she felt so fulfilled by a study abroad trip to Costa Rica that she quickly looked for similar opportunities — and funding to help pay for them.

That led her to the Benjamin A. Gilman Scholar and Critical Need Language Award, Fulbright and other prestigious opportunities. But as a first-generation college student, she was hesitant. “At first, I thought, These aren’t for me,” she said. “I felt really intimidated.”

Then she remembered that Pompeian, who taught her Latin American history course, had been a Fulbright scholar in Venezuela. “He was super enthusiastic and helped me through every step of applying,” Villavicencio said. “My writing skills improved, and I gained confidence in my other applications.”

Today and through December, she’s participating in the South Pacific Island Nations Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship. She spent a month in the Solomon Islands teaching middle school-aged children, a month in Vanuatu with university students, and is currently an English tutor at Papua New Guinea University of Technology.

Her advice for others is something she learned from a foreign service officer she met: “Go outside your comfort zone.”

Darri Stuber ’25: France

At UTampa, Darri Stuber was too busy to study abroad. She double majored in environmental science and data science. She did a summer internship with NOAA scientists at Princeton University. She researched the impact of climate change on hurricanes with Assistant Professor Nicholas Grondin.

“I have this minor in French, and I’m never going to use it,” she thought. “I’ve never even left the country. How am I supposed to study climate modeling without a global perspective?”

A fellow NOAA intern recommended the Fulbright program, and with just two months to the deadline, she worked it in with her applications to grad school. When the Fulbright came through, Stuber had already been accepted to a doctoral program. She put that on hold to earn a master’s in economics at L’École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay near Paris.

“Fulbrighters were the most interesting group of people,” she said. “Everyone is so driven, and they have such a clear purpose. I had friends studying lung transplants and food policy.”

That program wrapped up over the summer, and this fall she is a doctoral student in climate science at UC San Diego and a graduate research assistant at Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

Her Fulbright advice? “Be adventurous and believe in yourself.”