Local Fulbright Scholar Prepares for Experience Abroad

Twenty-two year old Milfordite Denis Whelan, son of local residents John and Louise Whelan, is a man with a plan.  The Villanova senior, who attended St. Gabriel School and Notre Dame of Fairfield before enrolling in Villanova, is not only preparing for graduation, but is also getting ready to head off to Spain as a Fulbright Scholar. 

The prestigious award of a Fulbright Scholarship puts Whelan as one of only approximately 310,000 international Fulbrighters since its inception in 1946.  The Fulbright Fact Sheet states that the program is the “flagship international exchange program and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.”  Or as Whelan put it, it gives a person the ability “to look at a country through the lens of its own culture.” 

During his time in Spain, Whelan will be participating in the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantships program, and will be teaching English at the High School level, while also working on a supplementary project.  He hopes to be able to connect with the Biophysics and Epidemiology Research Center in Spain, potentially working with that organization for his project. 

This will be Whelan’s second time abroad in Spain.  He had the opportunity during his time at Villanova to study abroad in a town about an hour outside of Madrid.  He was struck by the cultural differences and lifestyle of the locals, and noticed that although the diet was heavier than the “recommended” American diet, the locals were generally healthier.  This piqued his interest, as it aligns with his focus on nutritional epidemiology.  He hopes to be able to continue in this vein during his time in Spain as a Fulbright scholar. 

Not one to be idle, Whelan has a full plate between now and his departure for Spain.  He has his graduation from Villanova, then an internship at the National Institutes of Health in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.  He greatly looks forward to the experience this will give him, building on the knowledge he gained from his last internship at the Cancer Research Center in Seattle.  Once his Fulbright Scholarship is completed, he will be returning to the U.S. and attending Emory University for the Ph.D. program in Biostatistics. 

For more information on the Fulbright Program, please visit  http://us.fulbrightonline.org/

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Submitted by Milford, CT

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