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Eight UNC students awarded Class of ’38 travel scholarships

By ASHLEY ATKINSON
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- Eight University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students have won travel scholarships to study topics including indigenous medicine in India and songbird behavior in Peru this summer.

Seven of the winners will receive $3,500 each as this year’s Class of 1938 Summer Study Abroad Fellowship winners. They are juniors Yusuf Ahmad and Farhad Ardeshirpour of Raleigh; Bennett Harris of Greensboro; Jay McCall of Midlothian, Va.; Dana Moseley of Graham; Christie Ulman of Raleigh; and sophomore Brian Ernst of Charlotte.

The eighth winner, sophomore Curtis Webster of Houston, won a $2,750 Witten Travel Award, made annually to the first alternate of the regular fellowship selection process and funded by class of 1938 members Charles and Margaret Witten of Columbia, S.C.

Since 1975, an endowment created by UNC’s Class of 1938 has funded independent projects abroad by UNC students annually. Members of the class, who lived through and lost friends to World War II, created the endowment to help foster international understanding and promote world peace.

The program is administered by UNC’s International Center, which each year coordinates a committee to select finalists. Selection is based on quality of applicants’ proposals for independent study abroad, financial need and seriousness of academic purpose. A selection committee including representatives from the International Center and Study Abroad office, members of the Class of 1938 and former Class of 1938 fellows interviews finalists and names winners.

Ahmad, a biology major, will travel to Morocco to study the value holistic approach to medicine in an area where medical resources are scarce. Ahmad is a member of the Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity and the Muslim Student Association. He has worked in UNC’s biology laboratories and served as an International Student Orientation counselor, as well as volunteering with UNC’s Big Buddy Program and Rex Hospital.

Ardeshirpour, a biology major, will travel through India to learn, observe and research indigenous medical therapies that are considered alternative practices to Western medicine, and to compare American and Indian health care systems. A member of the varsity men’s tennis team and the University Band, Ardeshirpour also founded the campus group Health Education and Awareness on Diseases and Unhealthy Practices. He works as a counselor at he North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center’s Camp Celebrate and volunteers with UNC’s Big Buddy Program, the Temple Beth Or Health Fair and Rex Hospital.

Ernst, an ancient and medieval history major, plans to participate in the Azoria Project, an excavation in Crete, Greece. He serves on the UNC Student Attorney General’s staff and is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Ernst also volunteers with a Charlotte soup kitchen and Friendship Trays, an organization that delivers hot lunches to the homebound.

Harris, a management and society major, will study women’s reproductive rights and access to safe abortion methods in Nairobi, Kenya. She has volunteered for the Ronald McDonald House, the UNC Dance Marathon, the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center’s Saturday School for Computer Literacy and the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, as well as serving on the Residence Hall Association, the Minority Student Recruitment Committee and the North Carolina Council for Women. Harris is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and the Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity; she participates in the Blank Canvas dance group and the UNC Emerging Leaders Program.

McCall, an international students and environmental science major, plans to travel to Salzburg, Austria, with UNC’s summer program in International Environmental Risk Assessment and Energy Policy. There, he will conduct research for his senior honors thesis, which will propose a standard equation to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions of individual countries in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol. McCall serves as a grant manager for Students for Students International and a team captain for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. He also volunteers with the UNC Dance Marathon and enjoys weightlifting, rollerblading and Capoeira, Brazilian form of martial arts.

Moseley, a biology major, will travel to Peru to study the behavior and communications of the buff-throated woodcreeper. She will perform her research at a field station south of the Amazon River along with UNC biology Professor Haven Wiley and two biology graduate students. Moseley is a member of the Student Environmental Action Coalition and Feminist Students United. She works with the community-focused campus organization Roots and Shoots and as a DJ for student radio station WXYC.

Ulman, a business administration and international studies major, will travel to Santiago, Chile, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, to research the effects of Spanish banks’ investments in Latin America in preparation for her senior honors thesis. She has served as staff manager for student-run Carolina Consulting Solutions, as an International Student Orientation counselor and a committee chair for the Order of the Bell Tower. Ulman also volunteers with Habitat for Humanity, mentors for the Carolina Hispanic Association and has managed a team for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.

Webster, a journalism and Spanish major, plans to study journalism and the media in Seville, Spain. He will research Spain’s journalistic style and laws, the digitization of the field and audience perceptions of the media. Webster is a member of UNC’s varsity fencing team and the Black Student Movement. An external representative for UNC’s Student Government, Webster also mentors for Carolina Athletes Coming Together. He is active in the Boy Scouts of America and the New Bethel Church College Ministry.

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(Atkinson is a senior journalism and mass communication major from Roanoke, Va.)

Contact: Diana Levy, 919-962-5661, dmlevy@email.unc.edu