News Release

Local angles: Charlotte, Cramerton, Matthews,
Raleigh; Pasadena, Calif.; Bluefield, W.Va.;*
Milwaukee; Norfolk, Va.*

Achievement, leadership nets Fulbrights
for seven students to study, teach overseas

CHAPEL HILL – Seven University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students have been awarded 2006-2007 U.S. Student Fulbright Program awards to study or teach in another country.

The program allows graduating seniors and master’s and doctoral degree candidates to gain international experience. More than 1,200 students annually are awarded the scholarships for research, study or teaching in a country and topic that interests them.

Recipients are chosen for academic or professional achievement and demonstrated leadership potential. The fellowships must begin between July 2006 and March 2007.

Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the program's purpose is to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the rest of the world.

This year’s UNC student Fulbright scholars are:

• Meg Austin, a May 2006 graduate and classics major from Raleigh, will teach English as a foreign language at Palacky University in Olomouc in the Czech Republic. She also will study modern central European history, philosophy, literature and the Czech language.

• Alyssa Fine, a May 2006 graduate and African and Afro-American studies major from Milwaukee, will collect data through observations, interviews and focus groups in Mauritius, an island nation off the coast of southern Africa. She will recommend improvements for the implementation of domestic violence legislation. Her research could provide a new perspective for analyzing domestic violence in Mauritius and South Africa.

• Khanh-Lien Nguyen, a May 2006 graduate and journalism and mass communication major from Pasadena, Calif., will travel to India to explore the practices of Tibetan Buddhist rituals and culture in a modernizing society. By researching the original philosophy and practice of Buddhist customs, she will study how these customs protect a culture as Tibetan Buddhism and the West become increasingly exposed to each other.

• Elizabeth Pratt, a May 2006 graduate and environmental science major from Charlotte, will teach English in Thailand. Her students will prepare activities and materials in Thai and English for an environmental awareness week. In collaboration with a conservation and sustainable development organization, Pratt hopes to explore the state of the environment in the community.

• Melissa Roche of Cramerton, a fourth-year doctoral student in the School of Public Health’s department of health behavior and health education, will conduct research in Tanzania about a therapy used to treat retroviruses. She will study patients’ experiences with taking the therapy in two clinics in northern Tanzania. She also will lecture in public health at Kiliminjaro Christian Medical College.

• Cyrus Shahan of Norfolk, Va.,* a fourth-year graduate student in Germanic languages, will complete his dissertation, on punk poetics and 1980s German literature, at Humboldt University in Berlin. He earned his bachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in German from Virginia Tech.

• Emily Vasquez of Matthews, a May 2006 graduate in public policy analysis and journalism and mass communication, will study rural-to-urban migrations of young women, ages 15 to 24, in Asuncion, Paraguay. Vasquez attended Carolina on a Morehead Scholarship, a full four-year merit award. She plans to become a foreign correspondent in Central or South America.

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs sponsors the Fulbright program, which operates in more than 150 countries.
The scholarship is administered at Carolina through the University Center for International Studies, established in 1993 to develop internationally oriented, cross-disciplinary research initiatives.

For more information about the Fulbright program, visit
http://exchanges.state.gov/education/fulbright/.

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*Shahan, of Norfolk, Va., is the son of Linda Shahan of Norfolk and Michael and Jackie Shahan of Bluefield, W.Va.

UNC Fulbright program contact: Beth-Ann Kutchma, (919) 843-6842, bkutchma@email.unc.edu
News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589