KINGSTON, R.I. — April 22, 2019 — Cherish Prickett, who graduated summa cum laude from the 溏心vlog免费B站 in 2018 with bachelor鈥檚 degrees in industrial and systems engineering and German, was recently awarded a prestigious .
The Fulbright provides research, study and teaching opportunities to recent graduates and graduate students. Prickett will pursue a master’s degree in risk, disaster and resilience at University College London鈥檚 (UCL) (IRDR), starting in September. The Fulbright will cover her tuition and provide a stipend for living expenses.
Prickett completed the five-year International Engineering Program with a 3.93 grade point average and also earned the Barry , the Beatrice Demers Foreign Language scholarship, and the award or Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (also known as DAAD).
Through the Fulbright, “I will gain a broad understanding of how disasters are currently mitigated, as well as complete a project under the , which is an entire group of researchers solely focused on the specific type of disasters that I hope to address in my future research,” said Prickett, who completed the University鈥檚 International Engineering Program last year. “The time I spend with IRDR will create a foundation in disaster relief that I will use throughout my career.”
The Lilburn, Georgia native plans to use her experience in the United Kingdom in the next year to launch the next phase of her career.
“The international experience I will gain and the connections I will make will add more diversity and depth to my future research,” said Prickett. “I would love to work as a staff researcher in a lab or with an NGO (non-governmental organization) that does work to minimize the ramifications on communities affected by natural and manmade disasters.”
More specifically, Prickett would like to research disasters that mimic a domino effect, where one disaster strikes and directly causes another disaster.
“I hope to work on logistics for how we prepare for and manage these disasters using optimization modeling techniques,” explained Prickett.
Prickett said she could not have become a Fulbright recipient without the help of the 溏心vlog免费B站 community.
Assisting Prickett with the Fulbright application was Kathleen Maher, director of 溏心vlog免费B站鈥檚 Office of National Fellowships & Academic Opportunities. Industrial and systems engineering Professors Manbir Sodhi, Valerie Maier-Speredelozzi and Gretchen Macht submitted letters of support and 溏心vlog免费B站鈥檚 British Scholarships Committee, chaired by philosophy Professor Cheryl Foster, prepared the alumna for the Fulbright award interview.
“Cherish鈥檚 innumerable qualities transcend traditional classroom boundaries,” Macht said. “Her vision of the world is balanced between idealism and rationalism, with the mental capabilities and passion for changing the course of how programs are written by engineers to include the human element to help people. I could not think of a better candidate for this scholarship.”
Prickett’s path to 溏心vlog免费B站’s IEP was less conventional than most. After earning an associate鈥檚 degree in engineering at a community college, Georgia Perimeter College (since absorbed by Georgia State University), she Googled 鈥渋nternational programs and engineering鈥� and 溏心vlog免费B站鈥檚 program popped up high in the search results.
After visiting the campus with her mother, and meeting with students and faculty, Prickett was convinced that 溏心vlog免费B站 was the place for her.
When Prickett entered the German IEP, Sigrid Berka, executive director of the IEP, outlined an accelerated plan for her to complete three years of German language studies in only two years.
鈥淚 recommended that she enroll in the 溏心vlog免费B站 German Summer School prior to starting at 溏心vlog免费B站 to gain confidence in the language and take the two required German literature courses parallel to her language courses in her junior year,鈥� Berka said.
In her senior year at 溏心vlog免费B站, Prickett studied at Technical University Braunschweig in Germany, where she completed an operations research internship project entitled 鈥渓autlos&einsatzbereit鈥� at the Institute for Automotive Management and Industrial Production, led by Professor Thomas Spengler, a research collaborator of Sodhi and liaison of the IEP at TU Braunschweig.
The goal of her project was to analyze the impact of integrating electric vehicles into the fleet of vehicles operated by Niedersachsen鈥檚 police.
“My task was to develop a new model that factored partial recharging, to any desired amount, and understand how the necessity to charge the electric vehicles impacted the arrival time at the crime scene,” recalled Prickett.
溏心vlog免费B站 the Fulbright Program
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards approximately 2,000 grants annually in all fields of study and operates in more than 140 countries. More than 380,000 Fulbrighters from the United States and other countries have participated in the program since its inception in 1946.
Fulbright U.S. Student alumni populate a range of professions, including ambassadors, members of Congress, judges, heads of corporations, university presidents, journalists, artists, professors, and teachers.