At least 10 students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will be heading abroad this fall to participate in research, thanks to scholarships they received. Nine students were announced this spring as Fulbright recipients and another student received a Boren scholarship for study abroad.
Laura Roost, a political science Ph.D. student with a graduate specialization in human rights and humanitarian affairs, will travel to Rwanda in October on a Fulbright Scholarship. She will spend 10 months there researching the role of women's nongovernmental organizations in the country's post-genocide recovery to see how the organizations have impacted genocide survivors.
This will be Roost's second trip to Rwanda. In 2009 she studied abroad with UNL's Rwanda Summer Program thanks to her Senning Fellowship from the political science department and because of the support she received from Judaic studies.
"This previous experience in Rwanda has helped me to focus my Fulbright project and has helped provide contextual understanding for my research," Roost wrote in an email.
Roost chose to apply for a Fulbright so she could spend more time in Rwanda to better understand issues of gender, human rights and transitional justice.
Jesse Starita, a 2006 UNL broadcasting graduate, is currently in Brazil on a Fulbright. He first visited Brazil in 2008 through a grant from Partners of the Americas. That trip inspired him to return and apply for the Fulbright.
"It was a long and grueling process, but I felt like I had a leg because I had already visited and established interpersonal connections," he wrote in an email.
Starita is studying local development and environmental journalism at Dom Bosco Catholic University in Campo Grande, Brazil. He is the only American at a school of approximately 10,000.
"The level of help and assistance from students, professors and administrators has been surreal," he said. "They've invited me to backyard barbecues with live samba bands, pick-up basketball games, a palm oil harvest and an international cattle congress."
Starita added that the Fulbright is much different from an undergraduate study abroad where students normally travel with a group of Americans.
"You're totally independent on a Fulbright, and your level of immersion and integration within your host country is much greater," he wrote. "I think I've learned as much about America as I have Brazil, because sometimes a foreigner's image of America is more raw and unobstructed than our own."
The Fulbright Program, funded by the U.S. Department of State, gives recent graduates, master's and doctoral candidates, and young professionals and artists the opportunity to spend an academic year in one of 155 countries to conduct research abroad or teach English in another country. The program covers costs such as books and research allowance, round-trip transportation and supplement health and accident insurance. Students are eligible for the Fulbright if they are U.S. citizens, are enrolled at or recently graduated from UNL, have an undergraduate degree, maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0 and have not completed their Ph.D.
Laura Damuth, a Fulbright Program adviser, noted that this past academic year, 34 UNL students submitted Fulbright applications, 17 were finalists and a record-breaking nine students received the award. She described successful past candidates as those who have previously studied abroad, have strong language skills or are strong language learners, have a current research project that could be replicated in a foreign country or have language teaching experience.
Elena Shomos, a senior international studies and French major, is UNL's latest recipient of the Boren Scholarship. She expects to graduate in August and then head off to Albania in September for nine months to conduct research and learn the Albanian language.
The Boren Scholarship, funded by the National Security Education Program, gives undergraduate students the opportunity to study in uncommon study abroad destinations that are considered critical to U.S. security interests. The scholarship gives preference to students planning to study for at least one full academic year. Boren recipients are required to spend a year working in a federal government position after they graduate.
"I decided to apply for the Boren because it not only provides the resources for language study, but also gives me the opportunity to lay the groundwork for research," Shomos wrote in an email, explaining that it is essential for her to master the Albanian language in her field of study. "I didn't receive any other scholarships for this year, but the Boren Scholarship does cover the entire cost of my program."
Shomos plans to focus her research on the fall of the communist regime in Albania and how its changes toward democracy influence the country's candidacy for the European Union.
Students interested in applying for the Fulbright or Boren should begin the process as early as possible. For more information, contact International Affairs Office at 402-472-3076 or visit http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright/ or http://www.borenawards.org/.
bethanytrueblood@dailynebraskan.com
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