Five members of the Class of 1999 - Frances Baxley, Scott Braman, Michael Kim, Erica Ryu and Lauryn Zipse - have been awarded prestigious Fulbright grants to study abroad.
The Fulbright Award, created in 1946 by Senator William J. Fulbright, subsidizes one year of study or academic research in over 100 nations to foster understanding among nations through education and cultural exchanges.
Baxley intends to study at a German university, focusing on the issue of how the German health care system meets the needs of elderly Turkish immigrants.
A pre-medical student at the College, Baxley told The Dartmouth in the fall that she thought her project would be the perfect way to tie in her interests in German and medicine.
"It really is a perfect way to tie together my two interests, it isn't just self-serving," Baxley said. "I think the experience will help me be a better doctor."
Braman will go to Ecuador to ethnographically evaluate the obstacles and ways ecotourism ventures relate to community development initiatives.
Kim plans to teach English to middle and high school students approximately 20 hours a week in Korea. In addition, he will be studying organizational behavior of Korean businesses and write a series of essays about his family's immigration experience.
Ryu will be teaching in Korea as well, while researching an extension of her senior Honors Thesis, "Korean American Collective Action in Post Riot L.A." She plans to investigate how and why Korean churches responded to the riots. In addition, Ryu will research Korean small business associations and attitudes toward small business entrepeneurship.
Zipse plans to teach English as a second language in Germany as well as creating English translations of German lyric poetry.
The Fulbright award is given annually and funded by congressional appropriations and contributions from participating countries.
Sixteen Dartmouth students applied for the scholarship in 1999.
This year's applicants, as in past years, submitted their applications to the Dartmouth College Committee on Graduate Fellowships, which is made up of professors. These professors then selected students to nominate for the grant and helped them further refine their proposals.
Baxley praised the flexibility of the scholarship in the fall, before she had heard back from the Fulbright committee. "They recognize that you can have a good idea without knowing how you're going to carry it out when you get there."
