Tiana Putric, a fourth-year Disaster & Emergency Management student in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) has been awarded the Fulbright Canada Killam Fellowship, a bi-national exchange for exceptional undergraduate students in Canada and the United States.
Putric is one of 16 Canadian students chosen to participate in the prestigious program that aims to promote Canada-U.S. relations.
“In Canada, all top universities participate in this Fellowship, including U of T (University of Toronto), Western, Queens, McMaster, McGill and Dalhousie. I’ve chosen to complete my degree at Boston’s Wellesley College, where I have the option of cross-registering at MIT and Harvard,” said Putric.
Putric said the award was a welcomed honour and a bright spot in an otherwise stressful time.
“After Fulbright Canada informed me that I had been named a Killam Fellow, I immediately called my grandparents to share the news. It was definitely something inspiring for them and it interrupted the mundanity of the pandemic.”
The Killam Fellowships Program provides a cash award of $5,000 U.S. per semester, a three-day orientation in Ottawa, which was online this year, and a three-day spring seminar in Washington.
“Tiana represents the very best York has to offer,” said LA&PS Dean J.J. McMurtry. “We are exceptionally proud that she will be representing York University and the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies on the international stage.”
Putric will be graduating this spring with a bachelor of disaster & emergency management specialized honours degree and is considering several career options, including graduate school.