Brooklyn students win Fulbrights, headed for Bulgaria and Peru

June 30, 2014 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Mariya Tuchinskaya, left, and Melody Mills were honored with Fulbright scholarships. Photos courtesy of CUNY

Share this:

Two Brooklyn natives – Melody Mills, who attended Midwood High School and Mariya Tuchinskaya, from Brooklyn Tech High School – have received prestigious Fulbright scholarships.

Regarded as one of the top awards in the scholastic world, the Fulbright award program is the U.S. government’s flagship international exchange program.

The young women graduated last month from CUNY’s Macaulay Honors College of the City University of New York (CUNY). Both Mills and Tuchinskaya attended Macaulay at Baruch College, and were selected by CUNY for their top high school records and leadership potential.

Born in the Ukraine, Mariya Tuchinskaya immigrated to the US when she was 6 years old and graduated from Brooklyn Tech at the top of her class. A Psychology and Speech Language Pathology major, she will spend nine months teaching English in a high school in Bulgaria.

Melody Mills, a double Major in Psychology and Political Science, spent a semester studying in Peru in spring 2013. This experience provided the inspiration for her plan to conduct research in Peru, where she will track the educational trajectories of street-living girls in Lima.

Mills is the President of Solutions Across Borders and was co-chair of the Black History Month Committee at Baruch College. Through Macaulay’s Opportunities Fund, not only was Melody able to fund her semester in Peru, she also spent the winter semester of 2012 volunteering in Cape Coast, Ghana, teaching literacy, world geography, math, and physical education at seven elementary schools.

While there, she initiated a girls’ soccer team, along with dance, cheerleading, and basketball teams. “I look forward to the ability to positively influence children in a massive way through education,” Mills said.