New College of Florida today announced seven Fulbright scholars for 2009-2010, including six from this year’s graduating class and one from the class of 2008. This year’s record-tying number of Fulbright recipients for the College once again places New College among the nation’s leading undergraduate institutions in terms of per-capita production of Fulbrighters.
Since gaining independence in 2001, New College has produced 36 Fulbright scholars, ranking the College among the nation’s Top 10 liberal arts colleges in terms of per-capita Fulbright production. Since New College’s founding in 1960, 49 students have earned recognition as part of the Fulbright program.
Here is a look at this year’s Fulbright recipients:
Evan Axelrad (Forest Hills, NY)
Fulbright Grant to Norway
A double major in political science and environmental studies, Evan earned a Fulbright to Norway, where he will conduct research on biosafety capacity building at the Norwegian Center for Biosafety. Upon completion of his Fulbright, Evan plans to develop his background in sustainable development by pursuing a master of public administration degree with a concentration in environmental policy studies. Ultimately, he aims to pursue a position in the United States’ Agency for International Development’s Junior Officer Program and then a full-time career with USAID as a Foreign Service Officer.
Melissa Jacobowitz (Royal Palm Beach, FL)
Fulbright Grant to Ukraine
Melissa will graduate with a major in Russian language and literature. Her Fulbright grant will take her to the Ukraine, where she will investigate Jewish identity in post-Soviet Ukraine through a literary heritage project centering on the creation of a public monument in Odessa. Upon returning to the U.S., Melissa plans to enroll in a Ph.D. program in Slavic languages and literatures with a focus in Judaic Studies, continuing her research of Jewish literature and identity in Eastern Europe as a professor. Her goal is to foster a deeper connection between the reemerging Jewish communities of the former Soviet Union and the American Jewish community.
Georgia Junmei Kashnig (Champaign, IL)
Fulbright Grant to Switzerland
An anthropology and religion major, Junmei will study relations among the Swiss-Tibetan community in Switzerland by taking two semesters of coursework in the religious studies department at the Universität Bern, joining a research team on a project entitled “Buddhist identity in change: An investigation of second and third generations of Tibetan migrants in Switzerland” and conducting her own ethnographic research on the motivations of Swiss volunteers at the Tibet Songsten House, a non-profit organization located in Zürich. Following her Fulbright year, she plans to attend graduate school in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies and become a college professor.
Mackenzie Karp (Ocala, FL)
Fulbright Teaching Assistantship to Germany
Majoring in art history, Mackenzie has included German language, history and film as a major part of her studies at New College. Mackenzie will travel to Germany to teach English on a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship. While there, she hopes also to complete an internship at the Frauenmuseum in Bonn. MacKenzie plans to earn a Ph.D. in art history with a concentration in the Realist art of Weimar-era Germany. Her long-term goal is to teach on the university level, with a strong emphasis on the importance of fluency in foreign languages for all students of art history.
Claire Michelsen (Rockford, IL)
Fulbright Grant to Germany
Since she graduated from New College in 2008, Claire has been training with a licensed and certified professional midwife as a birth assistant and through the Doula Organization of North America as a doula. She plans to collaborate with the midwifery research unit at the Hannover Medical School (MHH) investigating how midwifery care and medical interventions shape the labor, birth and well-being of patients through the birth process. Claire is particularly interested in interdisciplinary studies integrating anthropology into public health and plans to enter a graduate program in medical anthropology with a specific focus on midwifery and birth practices.
Lee Ellen Reed (Williamsburg, MA)
Fulbright Teaching Assistantship to Germany
A double major in German studies and anthropology, Lee Ellen plans to further develop her abilities as a language teacher while also completing a collaborative photograph-centered project in a German Eco-School (Umweltschule). The goal of her project is to compare and contrast the German Umweltschule movement with the American Farm-to-School movement. Upon returning to the U.S, Lee Ellen plans to apply to a graduate school with a Ph.D. program in German culture and language, with an emphasis on alternative cultural movements. She hopes to teach all levels of German language classes at a small liberal arts college, integrating her specialty of alternative cultural movements.
Adam Schafer (Sarasota, FL)
Fulbright Teaching Assistantship to Spain
In addition to his duties as an English teaching assistant, Adam will use his experience as editor and writer for The Catalyst, New College’s student-run newspaper, to work with Spanish students to develop an English-language newspaper, helping them increase English language skills and serving as a tangible example of the students’ progress. He will expand upon his current academic research about the Spanish Civil War to incorporate historical Spanish views of foreign intellectual involvement into his studies. In addition, he plans to apply his athletics background in fencing with the Spanish students. Adam plans to attend graduate school upon his return, continuing his studies in history, literature and Spanish language, with the goal of becoming a secondary school teacher.