Rangnekar Named Fulbright Scholar

Avanti Rangnekar, of Knoxville, a senior in economics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a Haslam Scholar has been named a Fulbright Scholar. She will work with a hospital in India on a health economics research project that seeks to better understand how factors such as culture and tradition motivate consumption in the informal health care sector.

“Receiving a Fulbright to India not only grants me the ability to experience firsthand the rapidly evolving Indian health care system, but it also gives me the opportunity to immerse myself in the culture that contributes significantly to my identity as a South Asian American,” she said.

In its history UT has had 77 student Fulbright recipients, with its first in 1959. This year, UT had 52 Fulbright candidates and 27 semifinalists, and 18 students have already been offered awards—all single-year records for the university. UT also has two alternates who could still receive awards. A year ago UT had what was then an institutional best of nine Fulbright recipients, preceded by four (2016), four (2015), and two (2014).

Read about all UT Fulbright recipients this year.