At URI, Cherish Prickett chose the International Engineering Program, majoring in industrial and systems engineering and German. As a student in the five-year, dual program she spent a year in Germany: to study for a semester at the Technical University of Braunschweig, then to intern at a German company.

By the time she graduated from URI in 2018 with a B.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering and a B.A. in German, she had received several prestigious awards, including the Goldwater scholarship, the Demers Foreign Language scholarship, and the German Academic Exchange Service award. And in 2019, she was the recipient of a coveted Fulbright Award.

Prickett’s goal was always to do research for government agencies and nonprofits involved in recovery after disasters. The Fulbright Award, which covered tuition and and a stipend for her expenses, made it possible for her to further that goal with travel and advanced study abroad.

“To know I’m setting myself up to do work that helps people in need here and throughout the world is exciting,” she said. “We’re a global world. We can’t isolate ourselves. Disasters are all over the world, and how we respond to them can always be improved.”

As a Fulbright scholar, Prickett traveled to London where she earned a master’s degree in risk, disaster, and resilience at University College London’s Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction (IRDR).

Prickett said she could not have become a Fulbright recipient without the help of the URI community, including the URI’s Office of National Fellowships & Academic Opportunities, which advises and assists qualified undergraduates interested in applying for national and international scholarships and fellowships. 

Today, she continues her work helping people as a vaccination site manager for the DeKalb Country Board of Health in Georgia, her home state.