Five University of Richmond seniors have been awarded grants by the U.S. Department of State's 2007-08 Fulbright Program for a year of international post-graduate study, research and teaching.

Kara Schultz of Charlottesville, Emily Jenchura of Merion Station, Pa., and Katey Reighard of Hollidaysburg, Pa., were awarded research grants, and Tori Foster of Landenburg, Pa., and Laurie Knies of Wantage, N.J., were awarded English teaching assistantship grants.

The students were among approximately 1,200 recipients nationwide.

Schultz, a history and political science major and Spanish minor, will research ethnic and racial dimensions of the Spanish Civil War by examining Spanish Nationalist and Republican perceptions of American volunteers during the war.

Jenchura, a member of Phi Beta Kappa who created her own cross-cultural psychology major, will research interracial friendships in Trinidad and Tobago.

Reighard, a chemistry and religion major and Jewish studies minor, will research functional nanomaterials and electrochemistry in Israel.

Foster, a psychology and combined English-theater major, will teach English to elementary school children in South Korea.

Knies, a history major, will teach English to Chinese university students while organizing cross-cultural student activities. She will study Cantonese, English as a Foreign Language teaching methods and Hong Kong/China studies.

The Fulbright Program, established in 1946, is named after late Sen. J. William Fulbright, who introduced a bill in Congress to create a program "promoting international good will through the exchange of students in the fields of education, culture and science."

More than 279,500 people from the United States and abroad have participated.