Farmingdale State grad heading to Denmark as Fulbright scholar

He emigrated from El Salvador to the United States with his family when he was 6 years old, grew up with a serious illness, and graduated from Farmingdale State College. Next up for Cesar Hernandez of Port Washington: studying in Denmark as a Fulbright scholar.

Hernandez, 22, graduated in December. He will spend the 2022-23 academic year studying, teaching and doing research in neuroscience at a lab at the University of Copenhagen.

He wants to focus on how genetic mutations in the Danish population affect the functioning of the nervous system, leading to psychiatric diseases, Farmingdale State said in a statement.

Hernandez, who graduated from Paul D. Schreiber High School in Port Washington, said he was nervous while awaiting word from the prestigious Fulbright program, but elated he is heading overseas.

“I became really happy when I opened up the letter,” he said of learning that Fulbright had awarded him the scholarship.

Farmingdale State President Dr. John S. Nader said, “The Fulbright Award is one of the most prestigious in the nation. We are elated for Cesar, who will undoubtedly excel as a researcher. The award recognizes his intellectual ambitions and his remarkable work ethic.”

Fulbrights are highly competitive, and the list of winners since its creation in 1946 is impressive, with 61 Nobel Prize laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize recipients, and 40 who have served as a head of state or government.

Winners are chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential, according to the U.S. State Department, which administers the program. About 2,000 students in the United States win the scholarship each year and go overseas for their studies and research.

Hernandez, who majored in applied psychology with a minor in biology, is among six Fulbright winners from Farmingdale State College since 2010. He is the school’s first winner since 2013.

“He has a really strong research mindset,” said Lisa M. Cullington, Farmingdale State’s Fulbright program adviser.

“This is such a great thing for him and such a great thing for the institution,” she said. “It’s the kind of opportunity that FSC students are ripe for — they really understand how to apply research to real-world issues and challenges in a way that is uniquely Farmingdale.”

Hernandez said he became interested in studying the impact of a physical illness on a person’s mental and emotional health because of his own condition: sickle cell disease.

As a child, well-meaning teachers always kept a close eye on him so he would not suffer a painful sickle cell attack caused by cold, heat or stress, he said. If it was cold outside, teachers would have him stay inside. He would also get extra time on tests.

But he came to dislike the special treatment.

“Growing up, I didn’t want those accommodations,” he said. “I just wanted to feel normal.”

The special treatment “made me feel a bit self-conscious because I didn’t want to tell other classmates that I had a physical illness because I didn’t want them to treat me differently than other friends,” he said.

On Long Island, Hernandez volunteers at Cohen Children’s Medical Center, where he sometimes takes part in events on sickle cell disease, he said. Hernandez said he hopes to volunteer at a children’s hospital in Copenhagen.

After his year in Denmark, he plans to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he has already been accepted, Hernandez said. He is bilingual in Spanish and English.

Since its founding after World War II, the Fulbright Program has given scholarships to more than 400,000 people from more than 160 countries.

It is considered the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. About 4,000 foreign students also receive a Fulbright each year, and come to the United States.

Hernandez said his parents, who brought him to the United States from San Miguel, El Salvador, 16 years ago, are proud he won the scholarship, though his mother is a little nervous about him going overseas alone.

Cullington said Farmingdale has high hopes for Hernandez and his future as a researcher.

“We have all the confidence in the world … he is going to excel,” she said.