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Five Connecticut College students and one faculty member win Fulbright grants for research and teaching abroad
May 01, 2008
NEW LONDON, Conn. - Three graduating Connecticut College seniors and two recent alumni have been selected to receive prestigious U.S. Fulbright Student Program grants to live, teach and conduct research abroad for an academic year. Additionally, a Connecticut College faculty member has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to teach and conduct research in Ecuador.
This year´s five student Fulbright awards tie last year´s record number at Connecticut College. The college is again in the top level of colleges and universities whose students receive Fulbright awards.
Each year, approximately 1,150 students are awarded Fulbright grants. Fulbright fellows receive round-trip transportation to the host country, a living stipend, research allowances and medical insurance. In addition to research, grantees are encouraged to get involved in cultural and/or community activities, such as teaching English or American Studies, volunteering with a non-profit organization, or giving presentations to local groups or in schools. This year, all five of the college´s student and recent alumni finalists received Fulbright grants.
Katherine Buesing, a Connecticut College senior from Wilmette, Ill., will serve as a teaching assistant in an English-language classroom in France, and conduct her own informal study of the French educational system. At Connecticut College, Buesing has focused her studies on a self-designed interdisciplinary major, "Narrative Studies: Text and Performance," which integrates English, French and theater.
Benjamin Duclos, a senior German studies major from Concord, N.H., will travel to Germany to teach English and research the role of soccer in the formation of a national identity for German youth. Duclos´ older brother, Joshua Duclos, a 2004 Connecticut College graduate, received a Fulbright award last year. Joshua Duclos is currently teaching English and researching the Czech philosopher Jan Potocka in the Czech Republic.
Soren Gabrielsen, who graduated from Connecticut College in 2007 with a double major in German studies and philosophy, will teach English in Germany and plans to establish a club for students interested in learning about American folk and jazz music.
Nicholas Sullivan, a senior from Medfield, Mass., will also travel to Germany to teach English and study how American pop culture is influencing German youths and the German language. A government and German studies major, Sullivan plans to attend graduate school to study law or business.
Zachary West, who graduated from Connecticut College in 2005 with a double major in history and philosophy, will travel to Germany to teach English. He also plans to create an "American Film Society," at the school, using American films to teach students about the English language, as well as American history, politics and culture.
Additionally, the Fulbright Scholar Program sends 800 U.S. faculty and professionals abroad each year to lecture and conduct research in a wide variety of academic and professional fields. Connecticut College´s faculty winner, Bridget Baird, the Judith Ammerman ´60 Director of the Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology and professor of mathematics and computer science, will spend the spring semester of 2009 at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. Baird, a professor at Connecticut College since 1982, will teach a mathematics course that focuses on computer applications and a project-based seminar in virtual reality, developing a multimedia, interactive virtual reality simulation focusing on an Ecuadorian archaeological site or historical event.
Among the most selective private liberal arts colleges in the nation, Connecticut College enrolls 1,900 men and women from 41 states, the District of Columbia and 71 countries. The college is known for putting the liberal arts into action through interdisciplinary studies, international programs, funded internships, student-faculty research and service learning. Founded in 1911, the college operates under an 86-year-old honor code. The college is located at 270 Mohegan Ave, New London, about two hours by car from Boston and New York. The 750-acre campus is an arboretum overlooking Long Island Sound. For more information, visit www.connecticutcollege.edu.
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For more information contact: Amy Sullivan (860) 439-2526; amy.sullivan@conncoll.edu