Danielle Abdon Named Director of Fellowships and Awards

The College of Arts and Sciences is delighted to announce that Danielle Abdon has joined Oberlin College as the director of fellowships and awards.

Abdon earned a PhD in art history at Temple University and a BA in art history at Rollins College. During her graduate work, she was awarded several competitive fellowships from the Bibliotheca Hertziana—Max Planck Institute for Art History, the Countway Library of Medicine at Harvard University, the Huntington Library, the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, and the Society of Architectural Historians. She also has experience on the other end of fellowship awards, working as a graduate intern at the Getty Foundation and serving as a reviewer for the Boren, CBYX, and CLS programs.

Prior to joining Oberlin, she led the fellowships office at Rollins College. At Rollins, Abdon increased the average number of Fulbright applicants by 70 percent, reaching a record number of semi-finalists in the 2022-23 application cycle. Abdon also advised students applying for opportunities not traditionally sought, which led to first-time awards from the American Association of University Women and the Leadership Alliance as well as the school’s first NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program winner in 13 years. 

Abdon strives to make the fellowship application process inclusive and is committed to consistently diversifying the pool of applicants for competitive opportunities. Born and raised in Brazil, Abdon is excited to raise awareness about opportunities available to international students. She looks forward to partnering with faculty in arts and sciences and the conservatory to continue building on Oberlin’s strong tradition in fellowships, while expanding the number of opportunities available to Oberlin students.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Nick Petzak for his superb accomplishments as director of fellowships and awards during his years at Oberlin. Under Petzak’s guidance, and to the great benefit of so many Oberlin graduates, Oberlin enhanced its national reputation as a leader in garnering prestigious fellowships and awards.