Boat 2021
For the academic year 2021-2022, B.A.E.F. proudly sponsors 100 students and researchers in all academic fields. The present boat encompasses 89 Belgian Fellows (including one second year MBA 2020 Fellow) pursuing academic careers in the United States in addition to 11 American Fellows studying in Belgium.
Belgian Fellows
The Boat of 2021 uniquely includes 9 Fellows from the Boat of 2020 who postponed their Fellowship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among the talented graduate students, 24 Fellows pursuit a Master’s degree or PhD at top US universities. Our 2021 Fellowships include 2 Bachelor students to complete an initial Master’s, 7 graduate students for a complementary Master, 1 PhD candidate in African American studies, and 7 LL.M. Fellows. Of the 9 Fellows deferred from the Boat 2020, 2 are Maters’ Fellows and 7 LL.M. Fellows.
Among the 43 researchers, BAEF counts 3 Master’s level research medical students from the KU Leuven in order to gain research experience at top US Medical Schools: Harvard Medical School, Icahn School of Medicine and the Mayo Clinic. Finally, a total of 32 post-doctoral researchers and 8 doctoral researchers secured a research fellowship from the BAEF to finance research in top US university labs and research centers.
11 individuals of the Boat 2021 were granted Honorary Fellowships, earning financial support outside of the BAEF.
Popular Universities of choice among the Fellows include: Columbia U. (12), Stanford. U (11), Harvard. U (11), UC Berkeley (8), Yale U. (6), NYU (5), Georgetown U. (2), Georgia Tech (2), Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (2), Johns Hopkins U. (2), the Mayo Clinic (2), Northwestern U. (2), The University of Chicago (2), UCLA (2) and MIT (1), etc….
Music and MBA Fellows, this year’s Music Selection Committee awarded a Music Fellowship to a young violinist with several years of experience at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel. Ms. Alexandra Cooreman started her undergraduate music studies in violin at the Curtis Institute. A second Music Fellow Jesse Dockx will follow his music graduate studies at the City College of New York, specializing in jazz and drums.
Thanks to the generosity of two former MBA Alumni, Alec de Changy and Benoit Duplat, BAEF Fellow Layla Kara now pursues business studies as the first “Changy & Duplat” MBA Fellow on Social Impact. Ms. Layla Kara, originally from the University of Liège, started her MBA in Strategy Consulting & Social impact at UCLA this year. Among the 5 other MBA Fellows they are 2 Fellows at Northwestern U.- Kellogg School of Management, 1 at Harvard Business School, 1 at Stanford GSB and 1 at Georgetown McDonough SB.
US Fellows
From a competitive pool of applicants, the American Selection Committee chose 11 skilled US Fellows for the Boat 2021.
Among the musicians, one violinist Karen Su and a cellist Ari Evan complete their Artist diploma at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel. Sarah Badlissi studies at the Brussels Conservatory and follows guitar performance studies under the guidance of professor Antigoni Goni. Lastly, a researcher in historical musicology continues his academic career at the KULeuven & the Alamire Foundation.
Within the STEM fields, we have a graduate student and three researchers. Two US Fellows pursue their studies at UGent, including a Master student in Mycology and parasitology and a PhD Fellow in Biochemistry at VIB. One researcher is in Fluid Dynamics at the Von Karman Institute. Finally, a Master’s level research Fellow looks at hearing outcomes for users of auditory prostheses within the KU Leuven’s Faculty of Medicine.
In the fields of Human and Social sciences, BAEF sponsors two graduate students, one in European Studies at KULeuven and another in Modern languages at Vesalius College. In affiliation with UGent, BAEF also supports a doctoral researcher in African languages and cultures.
We wish the new Boat of Belgian and US Fellows 2021 a prosperous and fulfilling experience at their prospective universities and research labs.
Without the commitment and expertise of our numerous Alumni sitting on the various Selection Committees, this BAEF Fellowship program would not be made possible.
