Summer Fellowships Awarded
May 19, 2011
The Institute has awarded summer fellowships to 10 Brown undergraduates, under its ongoing Ringer, McKinney, Ruzicka, and Smoke programs.
The Jack Ringer ’52 Summer Fellowship in Southeast Asia is made possible by this late alumnus. Jack Ringer died during the past academic year, and he is remembered for generously supporting so many undergraduate students to do research and internships in Southeast Asia, where he served in Burma after graduating from Brown.
This year's Ringer fellows are:
• Michael Chua ’13, a neuroscience concentrator, interning with the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in the Philippines conducting schistosomiasis research in rural villages
• Quyen Ngo ’12, a development studies concentrator, researching young Vietnamese internet users and cyber activists in Vietnam and the Philippines
• Daniel Sherrel ’13, a human biology and international relations concentrator, at Cambodia’s Phnom Penh Post
• Julia Streuli ’12, an international relations and gender and sexuality studies concentrator, teaching English and instituting a culturally sensitive sex-education course for teenagers in Thailand with Learning Enterprises
The McKinney Family Fellowship recognizes excellence in international studies, as encouraged by Watson Institute Board of Overseers Chair David E. McKinney and his family. The 2011 awardee is:
• Joshua Rowe ’12, a development studies and Portuguese and Brazilian studies concentrator, working as a research intern with Conectas in Brazil.
The Marla Ruzicka International Public Service Fellowship, supported by Watson Board of Overseers Member Lucinda B. Watson in memory of this human rights activist, funds a Brown undergraduate pursuing international human rights, post-conflict rehabilitation, or international public service. The awardee is:
• Ana Bermudez ’12, a pre-med student concentrating in international relations, working with the African Alliance of Rhode Island to develop an intensive summer program to support refugees in Providence with English skills, job readiness, and acculturation
Richard Smoke Fellowships, named in memory of an Institute scholar, support research, advocacy, or service on contemporary global problems. This year’s recipients are:
• Rachel Baker ’12, an education studies concentrator, teaching skills in English and technology at an innovative public school in an impoverished rural village in Colombia for the Marina Orth Foundation's Step by Step Project.
• Lisa Berdie ’12, a development studies concentrator, interning with Medlife to improve low income families’ access to medicine, education, and development in Panama
• Maia Chao ’13, a modern culture and media concentrator, tutoring low-income students at the Semillero Mi Ángel Guardían in Guatemala
• Natalie Ring ’13, a neuroscience concentrator, interning in Nepal with Family Health International on an HIV/AIDS program for children
In the video below, you can watch Jordon Worthington '11, a development studies concentrator, describe the details of her public health internship in East Timor as a Jack Ringer fellow. Last summer, she developed a monitoring and evaluation system to understand the effectiveness of a program that used the Catholic Church to spread public health messages.