Stories

Sociology Alum Michele Canny ’19 has been named as a 2022 Fulbright Fellow! Canny represents the second consecutive year an SCU Sociology student or alum has won the award after Anjali Rangaswami ’21 received a Fulbright in 2021. Rangaswami was named as a finalist this year as well, but was instead able to begin her 2021 award, which was delayed due to Covid.

Michele Canny ’19 will conduct research in Italy, mapping out and cataloging nonprofits and community-based organizations that assist migrant women in Sicily. Canny grew up in the East Bay, with family originally from El Salvador as well as the U.S. She currently serves as the communications associate for Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP). Landing an internship at a justice-based Santa Clara Law program while an undergraduate has “changed the course of my post-graduate pursuits,” she said.

“I attended public schools in lower-income communities all of my life, so SCU felt like a breakthrough in helping me reach my educational and career goals,” she said.

A double major in sociology and Italian studies, Canny said her father is part Italian, and so she took the opportunity to study abroad in Italy in her junior year. She later received a REAL grant from SCU's College of Arts and Sciences, which enabled her to intern during the summer of 2018 in Brindisi, Italy, at a migration reception center where she shadowed an immigration attorney.

These two experiences “affirmed my passion for this work, and I couldn't be more grateful for the opportunity to once again return to it,” she said. After completion of her Fulbright program, Canny plans to attend law school and become an immigration or human rights attorney.