Sonoma Valley High grad wins Fulbright award

Isabel Garon to conduct brain research in Austria after finishing U. Chicago|

What’s a Fulbright?

The Fulbright Program was established in 1946 and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

The program awards approximately 8,000 grants annually, roughly 1,600 of which are given to U.S. students, in addition to several hundred teachers and professionals. The grants cover individually designed study/research projects or teaching programs.

Learn more at cies.org/programs.

Isabel Garon has spent the past four years attending what is arguably the hardest college, taking what is arguably the hardest major, all while balancing the demands of being a Division III athlete.

Garon, who graduated from Sonoma Valley High School (SVHS) in 2016, is finishing up her senior year as a neuroscience major at the University of Chicago. The university’s athletic department describes her as “the most accomplished pole vaulter in program history.” She holds the school records in both the indoor (3.83 meters) and outdoor pole vault (3.65 meters) and twice qualified for the NCAA Division III championships.

With graduation looming, how can Garon, 21, top that?

She learned last month she was named a Fulbright Scholar and is receiving an award to conduct academic research in Graz, Austria, at the Institute of Theoretical Computer Science.

Last week, she was home in Sonoma finishing up her senior thesis on how the connectivity between a specific, small group of neurons routes information in the brain, both from a computer science and neuroscience angle.

Garon credits a great support system at U. Chicago as key to her success.

“Some of the other pole vaulters are pre-medicine or neuroscience majors and we were able to study together,” she said. “I really like having both academics and then athletics as a balance. I always had a reason to get out of the library, to interact and run around.”

Garon estimates that track practice took up 20 hours a week in season and around 15 hours a week the rest of the year.

After the Fulbright, Garon will decide whether to enter a PhD program or get involved in research or the business applications of artificial intelligence.

“The Fulbright opportunity, working in a full-time research position, should help me make up my mind,” she said.

She will spend her days studying biologically possible learning algorithms. “It’s machine learning, through the kind of lens of neuroscience,” she explained.

Garon will receive a grant to cover all of her living expenses and a stipend for her work at the Institute. When reached by phone on Thursday, she was researching apartments. She had planned to travel in the weeks prior to arriving in Austria, but for now she is sitting tight, catching up (remotely) with friends from Presentation School and SVHS, finishing her thesis, and staying in shape.

She hopes to resume workouts with the pole vault club that she was in while at SVHS and she and some college roommates are training together (virtually) for a half marathon.

“We’re doing it to stay motivated and to keep in touch,” she said. “It’s actually been really fun.”

What’s a Fulbright?

The Fulbright Program was established in 1946 and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

The program awards approximately 8,000 grants annually, roughly 1,600 of which are given to U.S. students, in addition to several hundred teachers and professionals. The grants cover individually designed study/research projects or teaching programs.

Learn more at cies.org/programs.

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