University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumna, Caroline Zullo ’15, has been selected for the elite Carnegie Junior Fellows Program. She is Carolina’s first recipient of the one-year award in 25 years of record keeping by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The Junior Fellows program provides substantive work experience at the Carnegie Endowment for students and recent graduates with career interests in international affairs.
Zullo, 22, is one of only 14 selected for the prestigious program from a pool of almost 200 applicants representing nearly 150 institutions. As a Junior Fellow, she will work full-time at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington, D.C. as a paid research assistant to the endowment’s senior associates.
“We are tremendously proud of Caroline for being UNC-Chapel Hill’s first Junior Fellow of record,” said Chancellor Carol L. Folt. “With her deep commitment to the advancement of peace and international affairs, I know her year with the Carnegie Endowment will be a transformative experience that will set her on course for a brilliant career in humanitarian affairs.”
Zullo, from Raleigh, North Carolina, is the daughter of Gary and Lisa Zullo. She graduated with honors from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2015 with a double major in political science and global studies and a minor in Arabic from the College of Arts and Sciences. She is currently teaching English to Palestinian high school students in East Jerusalem through the Amideast Educational and Training Services.
“I am truly honored to be Carolina’s first Junior Fellow of record and to be working with the Middle East program,” said Zullo. “It is an invaluable opportunity not only to research and write about pressing topics in the Middle East, but also to learn from acclaimed Carnegie scholars and senior associates.”
While at Carolina, Zullo served on both the Honor Court and the executive board of the Campus Y and was Co-President of ENRICH, an English as a Second Language tutoring program. She was a Buckley Public Service Scholar and the recipient of the Thad L. Beyle Research Award, which she used to study conflict resolution in the Middle East. She also received a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship, which supported her intensive study of Arabic in Egypt and Morocco.
Zullo spent a summer as a research assistant for the Middle East Institute, where she conducted extensive research on Syrian civil society and published articles on Middle East issues on Peacefare.net. She plans to pursue a career path focused on international conflict resolution and humanitarian affairs in the Middle East.
“Caroline’s achievement is inspiring,’ said Mary-Floyd Wilson, director of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Office of Distinguished Scholarships. “The Carnegie Endowment for international Peace not only recognizes that her prodigious skills in languages, research, and political analysis will advance their research, but this fellowship also honors Caroline’s passionate dedication to International conflict resolution.”
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, one of the world’s leading think tanks specializing in international affairs, conducts programs of research, discussion, publication and education in international relations and U.S. foreign policy. Each year the endowment offers approximately 10-15 one-year fellowships to uniquely qualified graduating seniors and individuals who have graduated during the past academic year. They are selected from a pool of nominees from close to 400 eligible institutions. Junior Fellows receive a monthly salary equivalent to $38,000 annually and a generous benefits package.
