UT San Antonio graduate Ana Catalina Vallejo Chapa ’26 is one of 30 students in the United States to receive the Lafayette Fellowship, a prestigious new scholarship program that supports graduate study in France.
As a Lafayette Fellow, Vallejo will receive funding to support her pursuit of a master’s degree in neuroscience at Aix-Marseille Université in Marseille, France, beginning this fall. Vallejo’s selection builds on her extensive academic and research experiences in neuroscience and language at UT San Antonio, positioning her to advance toward a career as an international researcher.
Launched in fall 2025 by the U.S. French Embassy, Vallejo is part of the inaugural cohort of Lafayette Fellows. The fellowship was created to celebrate French-American friendship and the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence. It supports one year of study in a master’s program at one of 15 French universities across eight major French cities.
The Top Scholar and Honors College student graduated in May with a Bachelor of Science in neuroscience with a concentration in behavioral neuroscience, a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and a minor in French. Her extensive academic and research experiences at UT San Antonio, along with her dedication to French language and culture, distinguished her among a competitive pool of 3,400 applicants nationwide.
During her first semester at UT San Antonio, Vallejo joined the Wicha Brain, Language, and Cognition Lab. For two years, she contributed to research on bilingual children, multiplication fact learning, word association and semantic access in the brain. The experience helped Vallejo begin connecting her interests in psychology, neuroscience and language. Growing up speaking Spanish at home, the work also showed her how her personal background could become part of her academic and professional identity.
In spring 2025, Vallejo joined the Team on Acculturation, Risk, and the Development of Identity and Self (TARDIS Lab). There, she translated research materials from English to Spanish, conducted interviews and contributed to work related to identity, acculturation and mental well-being.
Vallejo has studied abroad three times as an undergraduate student. She first studied at the University of Oxford, then in Urbino, Italy, through the College of Liberal and Fine Arts, and later as a French language student in Senegal.
Vallejo’s program in Senegal was funded through the Boren Scholarship and its African Flagship Language Initiative, run through the U.S. Defense Language and National Security Education Office. She completed a domestic summer program at the University of Florida before traveling to Dakar, Senegal, where she studied advanced French, Wolof, Senegalese history and politics, art, literature, migration and urbanization.
At UT San Antonio, Vallejo has also served as president of the French Club, executive director of the Top Scholar Student Organization and a teaching assistant for the French department.
The Lafayette Fellowship will allow her to continue exploring the questions that have shaped her time at UT San Antonio, including how neuroscience, psychology, language and identity intersect.
“The Lafayette Fellowship not only symbolizes the culmination of the past 15 years I have studied French language and culture but will also catalyze my career as an international researcher,” she said. “I hope this monumental opportunity will only mark the beginning of my contributions to the Franco-American relationship.”
Vallejo credits UT San Antonio and the Top Scholar program for giving her the experiences, opportunities and support to pursue her passions and imagine what was possible.
She also credits the university’s Office of Nationally Competitive Awards for its support and guidance as she prepared her Lafayette Fellowship application. Housed in the Honors College, the office helps students across the university prepare and apply for dozens of national awards and scholarships that help fund study abroad, research, service learning and graduate education.
