U-M has 29 students receiving Fulbright grants for the 2011-12 academic year, topping the list of U.S. institutions for the fifth time in the past seven years.
As participants in one of the most competitive and prestigious awards programs in the world, the students will travel to 25 countries to do research, study or teach English for six to 12 months.
Their interests range from researching structural engineering in Norway and cancer screening in Tanzania to water quality in India and literature in Germany.
“It’s no accident that the University of Michigan has consistently achieved high numbers of grantees in a scholarship competition designed to enhance global exchanges,” says Ken Kollman, director of the International Institute. “The university has taken great care to foster an environment that values and promotes student immersion in other cultures.”
The grants are awarded to about 1,700 students each year on the basis of academic or professional achievement as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields.
The program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and other countries. It offers grants in nearly all fields and disciplines and operates in more than 135 countries worldwide.
Ranking behind U-M this year was Northwestern University with 27 recipients, Yale University with 26 and the University of Chicago with 25.
George Dong, who completed his U-M bachelor’s degree in 2009, is among the new grantees. He plans to research access to higher education for minorities in Yunnan, a province in southwestern China.
“My parents grew up in rural China and never had the opportunity to attend college,” Dong says. “I applied to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program because I want to return to my parents’ home country to help underprivileged students in Yunnan Province. I hope to use insights gained from this experience to develop a broader understanding of how to improve and expand educational opportunities for all.”
For further information about the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, go to www.ii.umich.edu.
The 2011-12 U-M Fulbright U.S. Student grantees, their degrees*, the countries where they will be studying and their projects include:
❙ Irsida Bejo, M.Arch, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning (architecture), Albania; Reactivating Public Space in Tiran: Enabling New Continuities That Inform Urban Performance
❙ Jennifer Buison, B.S.E, College of Engineering (CoE) (civil engineering), Philippines; Housing Initiatives of Non-Government Organizations in Metropolitan Manila
❙ Edward Byrne, B.S.E., CoE (civil engineering), Norway; Proposed Study of Structural Engineering in Norway
❙ George Dong, B.A., LSA (English), China; Access to Higher Education: The Wa Ethnic Minority in Lincang, Yunnan
❙ Jacqueline Doremus, Ph.D., LSA (economics), Republic of Congo; Strategic Implications of Independent Forest Monitoring
❙ Georgia Ennis, B.A., LSA (Spanish), Ecuador; English teaching assistantship
❙ Matthew Gacioch, B.S., LSA (Program in the Environment), Indonesia; English teaching assistantship
❙ Jennifer Geiger, B.S., LSA (Program in the Environment), India; Arsenic-contaminated drinking water: Poisoning child development in West Bengal?
❙ Zachary Goldsmith, B.A., LSA (political science); Armenia, English teaching assistantship
❙ Elizabeth Gramm, M.F.A, LSA (creative writing); Turkey, English teaching assistantship
❙ Kamayani Gupta, B.S., LSA (brain, behavior and cognitive science), Malaysia; English teaching assistantship
❙ Dorothy Heebner, B.A., LSA (political science, economics), Taiwan; English teaching assistantship
❙ Adam Janosko, B.A., LSA (English language and literature), subsequent M.A., American University, Kenya; English teaching assistantship
❙ Hajin Jun, B.A., LSA (history, political science), South Korea; Hosanna, Mansei, or Banzai? Religion and Politics in the March First Movement
❙ Delvina Kolic, B.A., LSA (political science, history), Bulgaria; English teaching assistantship
❙ Kyle Locke, B.A., LSA (history), Spain; English teaching assistantship
❙ Carolyn Lusch, B.A., LSA (Spanish, creative writing), Spain; English teaching assistantship
❙ Katherine MacDuffie, B.S., LSA (neuroscience), New Zealand; Imagining the Future in the Context of Reward
❙ Powell Perng, B.S.E., CoE (biomedical engineering), Tanzania; Barriers to Cervical Cancer Screening in Rural Villages of Bagamoyo District, Tanzania
❙ Kathryn Sederberg, Ph.D., LSA (German), Germany; Surviving the “Zero Hour”: Women’s Writing in Postwar Germany 1945
❙ Rohit Setty, Ph.D., School of Education (teaching and teacher education), India; Shaping Teacher Education: India’s New National Curriculum for Teacher Education
❙ Catherine Shubert, B.A., LSA (English language and literature), subsequent M.S., University of Pennsylvania, Andorra; English teaching assistantship
❙ Charles Sullivan, Ph.D., LSA (Southeast Asian history), Indonesia; Changes in Political, Religious and Cultural Authority in Solo from 1800: A Southeast Asian Case
❙ Heather Tidrick, Ph.D., LSA (anthropology and social work), Hungary; Roma integration, Romological Knowledge, and Institutional Practices with Roma in Hungary
❙ Joseph Viscomi, Ph.D., LSA (anthropology and history), Italy; Morals, History, and Migration: A Historical Ethnography of Egypt Migrants in Italy
❙ Christine Walker, Ph.D., LSA (history), Jamaica; Jamaica’s Motley Brood: How Widows, Slaves and Strumpets Created the British Empire
❙ Jasmine Way, M.S.E., CoE (industrial and operations engineering), France; English teaching assistantship
❙ Cynthia Yoon, B.A., LSA (political science, Asian studies), Vietnam; Vietnamese Brides in Mekong Delta, Vietnam
❙ Jacob Zunamon, B.A., LSA (history), Spain, English teaching assistantship
* Degrees listed are either the highest degree attained or the degree currently in progress.
