Katherine Chin 

2022-2023 Fulbright US Scholar to Trinidad and Tobago at the University of the West Indies 

The Fulbright US Student Program is the Unites States of America’s most prestigious academic exchange program. This opportunity expands perspectives through academic and professional advancement and cross-cultural dialogue. The Fulbright US Student Program offers unparalleled opportunities in all academic disciplines to passionate and accomplished graduating college seniors, graduate students, and young professionals from all backgrounds. Program participants pursue graduate study, conduct research abroad.  

During their grants, Fulbrighters will meet, work, and learn from the people of the host country, sharing daily experiences. The program facilitates cultural exchange through direct interaction on an individual basis in the classroom, field, home, and in routine tasks, allowing the student to gain an appreciation of others’ viewpoints and beliefs, the way they do things, and the way they think. Through engagement in the community, individuals will interact with their hosts on a one-to-one basis in an atmosphere of openness, academic integrity, and intellectual freedom, thereby promoting mutual understanding. 

Katherine Chin applied for the Fulbright scholarship as a BA History student with minors in Spanish, Latin American Studies and Legal Studies at Macalester College in Minnesota. Katherine’s Fulbright research project was entitled: The Impact of Law on Trinidad and Tobago’s Venezuelan Refugee Crisis. Over a 9-month period, Katherine in collaboration with the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine’s Faculty of Law supervised by Dr. Timothy Affonso and with assistance from the International Office for Migration, produced a final paper outlining the qualitative and quantitative results of the study. The ultimate goal of the research was to highlight the individual and systemic challenges faced in the experiences of Venezuelan refugees in Trinidad and Tobago, and to understand the ways in which the law factors into these experiences, and ultimately provide recommendations on how the law can better serve this refugee community.