2026 Fellows selected
Each year a select group of UW students are provided a rare opportunity to independently travel the world as Bonderman Fellows. David Bonderman, a UW alumnus, created the Bonderman Travel Fellowship in 1995, and it has funded life-changing global journeys for more than 350 students thus far.
We are excited to welcome in the 2026 Bonderman cohort. The 2026 Bonderman Fellows will travel to over thirty countries, spanning five continents collectively. Each fellow will independently explore two to three world regions, traveling in six to nine countries over eight months. The broad vision of the Bonderman is to inspire individual transformation by expanding the fellow’s understanding of themselves and of the complex and interconnected world we live in. With this vision in mind, each fellow designs a unique travel plan without academic study, projects or research.
Bonderman Fellows are encouraged to challenge their assumptions about the places they explore and people they meet during their journeys and instead be open to new discoveries. Increasing our interactions with different people, cultures and places around the world has become increasingly important as technology has accelerated globalization and shaped our digital collective lens on the world. Learning about the world through travel and in-person interactions provides a varied, humane, and complicated understanding of individuals and communities across the world.
About David Bonderman
For more than twenty years UW alumnus David Bonderman annually supported UW students via travel fellowships that ask them to explore, be open to the unexpected, and come to know the world in new and unexpected ways. The University of Washington Bonderman Fellowship expanded its impact in 2017 with a $10 million endowment from David Bonderman.
In December 2024, David Bonderman passed away at the age of 82. UW staff and the community of Bonderman Fellows are grateful for his legacy and generosity.
Applying to the Bonderman Travel Fellowship
UW graduate students, professional students, and undergraduate students are eligible to apply for the Bonderman Travel Fellowship. The application process includes a travel statement, a proposed itinerary, and an interview with a selection committee composed of University of Washington faculty and staff, as well as former Bonderman Fellows. For more information, visit https://bonderman.uw.edu/applying/.
About the 2026 Fellows
Regions and countries to be explored:
Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Egypt, Georgia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Peru, South Africa, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zambia, and more!
While Bonderman Fellows don’t do research or study during their journeys, their travel interests are diverse. Below are some of the interests of the 2026 cohort:
- Information systems and ethical knowledge preservation
- Culinary traditions and colonialism
- World religions and spirituality
- Community and social connection through game culture, physical & mental health, and urban development
Undergraduate Fellows
Hawa Drammeh
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Hometown: Bellevue, WA
Hawa’s fellowship will take her across Asia, South America, and Africa in pursuit of a single question: what does it mean to make something with care? She is drawn to those who devote time and intention to their craft whether through textiles, metalwork, pottery, design, technology, or entrepreneurship and is especially curious about how culture and lived experience shape what we create. Through solo travel, she hopes to slow down, listen closely, and learn from people whose work often goes unseen, carrying those lessons into how she builds in her own life.
Annabelle Fallstrom
Bachelor of Arts in French & Mathematics
Hometown: Kirkland, WA
Annabelle is curious to understand who she becomes when the familiar pillars of her identity fall away. Growing up in a world where politics, religion, and class felt fixed has made her wonder how her convictions might shift in entirely different settings. She hopes that stepping into cultures and climates far different from her own will challenge her assumptions and reveal new parts of herself. She plans to travel through Morocco, Algeria, India, Thailand, Vietnam, and Japan, exploring how each place reshapes her sense of self and the values she carries.
Maya Gillaspy
Bachelor of Science in Human Centered Design & Engineering
Hometown: Cameron Park, California
Maya’s travels are driven by a desire to understand learning beyond traditional classrooms and to explore how culture shapes identity and belonging. Having spent much of her life in structured academic environments, she has begun to question how narrowly learning is often defined. Growing up a Polynesian dancer, she is especially interested in how knowledge is shared through movement, culture, and everyday life. Through travel across Asia, Polynesia, and South America, she hopes to learn through conversation, observation, and cultural immersion, while exploring how people connect to knowledge, culture, and each other.
Anna Gonzalez
Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry, Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology: Medical Anthropology & Global Health
Anna sees the Bonderman Fellowship as an opportunity to wander and learn at her own pace. Exploring East Asia and South America, she hopes to deepen her understanding of wellness across cultures through intentional observation, while still leaving room for the unexpected. Along the way, Anna looks forward to immersing herself in local cuisines, spending time outdoors, and connecting meaningfully with the people she meets. More than a travel experience, this journey is a personal one. Anna hopes to cultivate patience, presence, and self-awareness, returning home with greater empathy, humility, and a broadened perspective of the world.
Carolina Leon-Nogales
Bachelor of Science in Nursing
Hometown: Woodinville, WA
Carolina is looking forward to immersing herself in cultures that have various, different definitions of healthy living. Health may encompass aspects of their physical land, body, food, and social connections. This may look especially different in cultures with a collectivist outlook, as their version of being healthy may include their relatives or whole community.
Kat Lew
Bachelor of Design in Industrial Design
Hometown: Bothell, WA
Having spent most of her life on the West Coast, Kat is excited to experience cultures that are unfamiliar to her. Much of the community Kat has found in her life has come through play—through online gaming, board game clubs, and mahjong groups. While play can sometimes be seen as frivolous or trivial, it has been an important aspect of Kat’s life, shaping how she connects with others and fuels her creativity. Through this journey, she looks to explore how people in different cultures gather, play, and build community. As a designer, Kat is also curious to discover how people interact with public spaces, have fun with one another, and experience daily life in ways that differ from her own.
Aditi Mangla
Bachelor of Arts in Economics; Law, Societies, and Justice (Honors)
Hometown: Renton, WA
Aditi’s Bonderman travels will take her through Morocco, Tunisia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan to explore a single question: how do environments communicate strain and resilience, and how do communities respond while preserving their relationship with the land? In each country, she plans to attune herself to a different register of ecological listening: tracing water through ancient irrigation channels in Morocco, letting food seasonality reveal soil health in Tunisia, sitting in stillness in Malaysian rainforests, and reading absence across desertified landscapes in Central Asia. She hopes to return not with answers, but with a deeper capacity to listen to the air, water, land, and the lives entwined with them.
Tom McAlister
Bachelor of Arts in Art 3D4M with Departmental Honors
Hometown: Everett, WA
Tom is interested in how craft practices can foster deeper connections between people and their environment. Guided by this interest, his Bonderman Fellowship travels will be centered around experiencing a variety of global craft traditions, from textiles to ceramics and beyond. He anticipates traveling to Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Morocco, Algeria, Turkey, Kazakhstan, China, and Mongolia. Tom is excited to become a more globally engaged artist and individual. Although there is a lot that he hopes to see, he is most excited for the surprises that global travel is sure to bring.
Yahayra Ruiz
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology & Education, Communities and Organizations
Hometown: Yakima, WA
Growing up as a low-income, first-generation student, Yahayra only gained glimpses of travel through magazine covers. Throughout her time at UW and through many beautiful friendships, her dream of traveling and visiting places across the world became a deeper curiosity that drives her travels. Through the Bonderman Fellowship, she will continue to seek knowledge and explore communities across Asia, Africa, and South America. Her travels are rooted in languages, identity, and culture as she explores the ways communities learn and cultivate relationships. This adventure across the world is also a testament that any child from the 509 can and should dream big.
Rossy Sierra
Bachelor of Arts in Sociology; Human Rights and Public Policy minors
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Rossy’s Bonderman journey is rooted in a desire to explore how community is created, protected, and expressed in everyday life. As the child of Mexican immigrants, she has experienced how food, music, and dance can carry identity across generations. By traveling independently, she hopes to learn who she becomes without relying on familiar support systems while also observing how communities navigate history and policy in subtle, lived ways. She is drawn to the quiet acts of resilience that appear in daily life, in shared meals, local traditions, and collective spaces. Through her journey across Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, Rossy hopes to develop a stronger sense of self while learning how communities sustain themselves on their own terms.
Moses Tolenoa
Bachelor of Science in Informatics
Hometown: SeaTac, WA
Moses Tolenoa’s desire to travel is deeply connected to his roots in Kosrae, Micronesia, where community, culture, and connection to others shape everyday life. Growing up between island values and life in Seattle sparked his curiosity about how people around the world create belonging, preserve tradition, and navigate change. Having never experienced much of the world beyond home, he sees the Bonderman Fellowship as an opportunity to step into unfamiliar environments with openness and humility. Drawn to hiking, exploration, and learning new systems, Moses hopes to better understand how different cultures live, adapt, and find meaning in their environments while challenging himself through the uncertainty and growth that come with solo travel.
Brigitte Worstell
Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies & Economics
Hometown: Nine Mile Falls, WA
While at the UW, Brigitte developed a strong interest in the intersection of community and the environment. She first learned about the Bonderman Fellowship her sophomore year, and is extremely excited to have been selected as a recipient.
While traveling, she plans to explore how people define fulfillment and success in cultures that emphasize collective well-being and interdependence over individual distinction. She is eager to explore the world and challenge her assumptions about success and achievement and grow to be more independent and reflective throughout her journey. Brigitte’s travel will include Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, Poland, and Turkey.
Graduate and Professional Fellows
nwagu aneke
Master of Arts, Community Planning
Hometown: Little Rock, AR
nwagu aneke’s journey begins with a first-time revisit to Africa in about 10 generations. As a displaced African this journey is a prefigurative act of knowing the self through geographical exploration. It is a journey of the heart and ends in the exploration of some of the oldest cities of the world for a broader first-hand perspective of the world.
Scott Bandy
Master of Communication, Communities and Networks
Hometown: Palmdale, CA
As a Bonderman Fellow, Scott plans on exploring the continent of Africa, visiting countries such as Rwanda, Ghana, and Morocco. Each with distinct and vibrant cultures that allow him to explore what being Black feels like outside of the context of America. Scott also plans on visiting Asia and stopping in countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam. Being able to partake in and observe traditions that have lived on throughout generations, while also being immersed in the intersection of communities is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Moniyat Chowdhury
Master of Science, Information Management
Hometown: Renton, WA
Moniyat’s proposal centers on developing a more resilient and grounded sense of identity through exploring the intersection of faith and community. Growing up as a Bangladeshi Muslim in post-9/11 America, she often felt pressure to separate and hide parts of her identity in order to belong, which left her feeling lost with regard to faith, belonging, and self-definition. Through solo travel across the Balkans, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia, Moniyat hopes to experience how different communities sustain identity under varying cultural and historical conditions, and through those experiences, better understand her own values, resilience, and sense of belonging.
Leslie D. D. Coney
PhD, Human Centered Design & Engineering
Hometown: Chicago, IL
From the south suburbs of Chicago, Leslie has always allowed her curiosities to open new worlds for her. The Bonderman Fellowship gives Leslie the space and time to wander in those worlds. Her research on community care in Black maternal health has deepened her curiosity about how Black communities across the diaspora sustain and care for one another. She will explore these practices on a “Homecoming” journey through Senegal, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Cameroon, South Africa, Brazil, and Chile. She will use creativity, curiosity, and care to not only connect with a diasporic community, but to connect with herself as well.
Justin Elumn
Master of Science, Information Management
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Justin’s identity, roots, and curiosity about how communities carry knowledge across generations led him to the Bonderman Fellowship. As a Bonderman Fellow, he will travel across Latin America, the Middle East, and East and Southern Africa to explore how landscapes, cultural expression, and lived histories function as systems of knowledge. He is drawn to places where listening is still how knowledge lives, carried in oral traditions, textiles, music, dance, and land. In a moment when this knowledge is disappearing faster than it can be preserved, Justin seeks to listen with care and curiosity while there is still time.
Gray Johnston
Master of Social Work
Hometown: Renton, WA
Gray’s journey is rooted in a deep passion for how community care intersects with creativity, craft tradition, and expression. Time spent in nonprofit textile spaces has shown how creativity and community allow people to thrive, offering something beyond basic needs. The Bonderman Fellowship offers Gray an opportunity that once felt out of reach. Traveling through Latin America, the Caucasus, and East Asia, she is drawn to places where craft is part of everyday life and integral to how people express themselves and form belonging. Along the way, she hopes to find small moments of joy in nature, jazz bars, and local markets, returning as a more reflective and grounded social worker.
Sandy Reyes Tena
Master of Arts, Hispanic Studies; Bachelor of Arts, Environmental Studies and Spanish
Hometown: Yakima, WA
Sandy’s Bonderman journey will be a chance to explore manifestations of motherhood through different communities in South America and Asia. As a P’urhépecha woman, an indispensable part of their cosmovision is the admiration and respect for mother Earth. During the P’urhépecha New Year, celebrations begin with a temazcal, which is meant to resemble being back in the Earth’s womb. This symbolic representation of motherhood during this ceremony is what sparked Sandy’s interest in the idea of motherhood. Through explorations of motherhood in different countries, Sandy seeks to better understand how this act is conceptualized in other cultures and to grow a deeper appreciation of how motherhood is shown, beyond physical childbearing. This journey serves as an ode to all of the women in her life, past and present, who have shown what motherhood is and have left legacies because of it.
Samantha Tran
Master of Public Health, Global Health
Hometown: Grand Rapids, MI
Samantha’s pursuit of the Bonderman Fellowship represents her determination to complement her studies as a graduate student in global health, while stepping beyond the structure that has shaped much of her journey. Life as a student-athlete created a consistent community and demanded a considerable degree of discipline. Through the boundless nature of Bonderman, she is excited for the opportunity to connect with diverse and unfamiliar communities, as well as to embrace the spontaneity of unique experiences that independent travel offers. As a first-generation Vietnamese American student, Samantha hopes to use this journey to explore her heritage, deepen her sense of self, and extend her worldview. Her itinerary through North Africa, Eastern Europe, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Philippines, and Japan reflects both her curiosity and a desire for growth.
A ninth graduate Fellow declines to be identified at this time.