Kellogg International Scholar Natalie Vellutini ’19 is one of three University of Notre Dame students to receive a prestigious 2019 Orr Fellowship. 

The two-year post-graduate fellowship combines a full-time position at an Indianapolis-based company with a curriculum focused on community involvement, professional development, and leadership. It has an annual acceptance rate of 5 percent. 

Vellutini, a neuroscience and behavior major minoring in poverty studies, will work at Sharpen, a software company.

Through ISP, Vellutini has assisted Faculty Fellow Jaimie Bleck with her work on governance, democracy, elections, and female representation in Africa. The program pairs undergraduates with a faculty mentor to assist in his or her research. 

Vellutini, whose research interests include global health and comparative democratization in Africa, led a team of undergraduates on a project assessing an anti-violence program conducted around the 2016 Ghanaian presidential elections. She also attended a Unite for Sight Global Health & Innovation Conference at Yale University.