Eight Hamilton College seniors have been awarded Fulbright Scholarships and Teaching Assistantships to pursue research projects abroad and to teach English in foreign countries next year. Seven other students have received national scholarships and recognition that will enable them to conduct research or study abroad.
Five Hamilton seniors received Fulbright Scholarships. Allison Demas will spend the 2007-08 academic year at the Universite Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal, where she will research anti-malarial treatments in the lab of Dr. Daouda Ndiaye.
Daniel Griffith will conduct research at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, in the lab of Dr. Ullrich Jahn. He aims to develop an efficient and generally applicable synthesis of a class of natural products called cyclopentanoid monoterpenes.
Lucas Thornblade will study the establishment of family medicine as a practice in a communal health center in Khanh Hoa Province in Vietnam. Thornblade will survey and interview physicians who have undergone retraining in family medicine to measure their response and the development of primary care which has become a standard for cost-effectiveness and quality in rural health.
Robin Wong plans to study attitudes toward aging in China to investigate the relationship between age identity, life satisfaction and positive mental health at SunYat-Sen University. In her proposal Wong says, "Maintenance of an identity younger than one's actual age has been correlated to positive well bring in the U.S. but may bit hold true for adults in a collectivist culture such as China. Both explicit and implicit measures are necessary for a more complete view of age identity."
Natalie Tarallo will travel to Mauritius where she will study the direct and indirect role of ethnicity in youth political identity formation. She will investigate the process by which Mauritian secondary school age youth negotiate ethnicity in the development of political identities in schools, community organziations, youth centers and political parties.
Three students who will graduate on May 20 were awarded Fulbright Teaching Assistantships. Emily Alinikoff will teach English in Turkey; Andrew LaFiandra will teach in German; and Ross Ufberg's teaching assistantship will take him to Russia.
The Fulbright program offers invaluable opportunities to meet and work with people of the host country, sharing daily life as well as professional and creative insights. The program promotes cross-cultural interaction and mutual understanding on a person-to-person basis in an atmosphere of openness, academic integrity and intellectual freedom. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by Congress to the Department of State. The U.S. Student Program awards approximately 900 grants annually and currently operates in more than 140 countries worldwide.
The Fulbright awardees are among 15 Hamilton students who won national scholarships and recognition this year. Caitlin Jacobs '07 was awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for 2007-2008. Jacobs' project is titled "An Examination of the Coexistence of Big Cats and Humans." This year 179 students competed on the national level after their institutions nominated them in the autumn and 50 were selected from 50 of America's top liberal arts colleges. Each Watson fellow receives $25,000 for the year of self-directed independent study while traveling outside the United States after their graduation.
Kristin Alongi '08, Marco Allodi '08 and Daniel Campbell '08 were all named Barry M. Goldwater Scholars for the 2007-08 academic year. The Goldwater is the premier national undergraduate award in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.
Geoarchaeology major Mary Beth Day '07 was named to USA Today's All-USA College Academic First Team. Each February, USA Today honors 20 undergraduate academic all-stars as its All-USA College Academic Team. Day is the first Hamilton student to earn the honor.
Kaitlin Britt '09 was awarded a Freeman - Asia Award for Undergraduate Study. The Freeman-ASIA program offers awards for study in East and Southeast Asia. Awardees are expected to share their experiences with students on their home campuses to promote study abroad in Asia and to spread understanding of Asia.
Melissa Kong '08 received a Gilman Scholarship for International Study. The program goal is to diversify the kinds of students who study abroad and the countries and regions where they go and the languages they learn.
