Seven students were selected as recipients of the 2026 Burch Fellowship to pursue unique, self-defined educational experiences anywhere off UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus.
The Burch Fellows Program was established in 1993 by a gift from UNC-Chapel Hill alumnus Lucius E. Burch, III. Its purpose is to recognize undergraduate students at Carolina who possess extraordinary ability, promise, and imagination. The students propose self-designed endeavors that will make a demonstrable difference in the selected Burch Fellows’ lives and enable them to pursue a passionate interest in a way and to a degree not otherwise possible. Funding of up to $7,000 is available towards the expenses of each proposed project.
To be chosen as a Burch Fellow, an applicant must present convincing evidence of exceptional intellectual, creative, civic, or leadership ability and promise through the application, recommendations, and interview. The proposed fellowship experience should allow the pursuit of an intense interest well beyond the scope of an academic course, a vocational commitment, a summer job, internship, or enrichment program. All Carolina undergraduates who meet eligibility requirements may apply.
Riya Baddingam (’28) is a second-year media and journalism and global studies student from Charlotte, NC. She has strong academic interests in legal history, dispute resolution, and the foundations of legal authority outside modern state systems. She is particularly interested in how law functions in practice when enforcement relies on social obligation rather than centralized courts. For her Burch Fellowship project, Riya will travel to Ireland, Scotland, and England to develop a comparative study of early Irish Brehon Law, examining how professional jurists resolved disputes through mechanisms such as sureties and kinship-based liability in non-state societies.
Hannan Canada (’27) is from Sacramento, California and is a community and global public health major at Gillings with a minor in chemistry. She is interested in strengthening public health prevention strategies in resource-limited settings. Through her Burch Fellowship, Hannan will travel to Western Uganda to continue research on a newly developed malaria prevention intervention: insecticide-treated baby wraps. Working with UNC’s Infectious Disease Lab (IDEEL) and Mbarara University (MUST), she will conduct a qualitative, community-centered study to examine pathways for increasing implementation.
Jacob Dokulil (’28) is from Raleigh, North Carolina and is a double major in political science and contemporary European studies with a minor in History. Interested in Central European political culture, he will use his Burch Fellowship to study democratic symbolism in cities in the Czech Republic, focusing on how the country reshaped its identity during the interwar years from a Habsburg-controlled state into an egalitarian republic under liberal principles. He will further examine what such symbolism means today in a contemporary sense.
Katelyn Howard (’27) is from Raleigh, NC and is a double major in psychology and community and global public health with a minor in Spanish. Passionate about reproductive justice, Katelyn will use her Burch Fellowship to travel to Puerto Princesa City, Philippines to study how young people and queer communities advocate for comprehensive sexual education and resources. She will intern with a local NGO to create sexual health workshops and conduct interviews with youth advocates to amplify their work.
Aarohi Lamichhane (’27) is from Lincoln, Nebraska and is majoring in neuroscience and women’s and gender studies. She is an advocate for access to sexual and reproductive healthcare. For her Burch Fellowship, Aarohi will support adolescent sexual and reproductive health initiatives in rural Nepal alongside Ipas Nepal. As a Nepali woman herself, she is interested in uplifting the stories of Nepali youth to inform community-driven interventions and capture how culture shapes health outcomes.
Naina Mishra (’27) is a neuroscience and data science double major from Cary, NC with the long-term goal of becoming a pediatric neurologist and is passionate about pediatric and maternal health and culturally informed care. Naina’s Burch Fellowship is titled Prescriptions of Empire: Indian Medicine and Colonial Narratives. She aims to explore how Indian medical practices related to childhood illness/maternal care were documented during colonization and how these narratives continue to influence modern medical understanding.
Andrew Phaneuf (’27) is a history major from North Andover, Massachusetts, with minors in philosophy and Spanish. His Burch Fellowship project traces the intellectual genealogy of print in Mexico City from 1968 to the present, examining how student activists use ephemeral print—posters and flyers—as sites of intellectual creation and political intervention. On campus, he transforms his research on intellectual history and social movements into advocacy, founding and leading Sunrise UNC, the Legal Action Project at Carolina, and The Liberator. He enjoys backpacking, language learning, and writing. Drew plans to pursue a JD/PhD and a career in human rights law.
You can find 2025 Burch Fellows project posters and videos on our Past Burch Fellows page.
Read more about the Burch Fellowship here.
Honors Carolina contact: Gina Difino, (919) 962-9680, Gina_Difino@unc.edu
Communications and Public Affairs: (919) 445-8555, mediarelations@unc.edu
