Elizabeth Bloom, a second-year student from the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas, has been officially announced as a recipient of a Fulbright award for the 2022-23 academic year.
“I am honored to receive a Fulbright,” Bloom said. “My father was a Fulbrighter in Venezuela and it has always been a goal of mine to follow in his footsteps. This Fulbright will be an opportunity for me to explore sustainable international development, health equity, and cultural exchange while conducting research in maternal and child health. I cannot wait to take this step in my public service career.”
Bloom will be placed in Guinea, a French-speaking country along the Atlantic coast of western Africa. Bloom proposed research that would seek to determine if an on-site, trauma-informed prenatal yoga program would improve pregnancy and childbirth experiences for Guinean women. She will leave in January 2023.
“I am hopeful that I will be able to jumpstart my career in international public health program development and research,” Bloom told the Clinton School in January. “Along with the guidance of Dr. (Nichola) Driver, I developed a community-based participatory research project. This project will test to see if incorporating yoga into prenatal care visits at Hôpital ANAIM Kamsar in Kamsar, Boké will lead to increased contact with the hospital and more positive experiences of pain, stress, and discomfort during pregnancy and delivery.”
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.
The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments, host institutions, corporations, and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The Program operates in over 160 countries worldwide.
A native of Philadelphia, Pa., Bloom is pursuing a concurrent Master of Public Health from the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health.
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