July 28, 2005
Ten Clark University Students Awarded Anton Fellowships
Grants will enable students to explore original research, creative ideas and public-service projects
WORCESTER, Mass. - Ten Clark University undergraduates will be pursuing independent scholarly research, creative projects, and community service activities this summer and during the upcoming academic year, supported by the Anton Fellowship Program.
Christopher Miller of Juneau, Alaska, is creating an exhibit and hand-made book on the history of the Standard Foundry in Worcester - an abandoned, vacant, dilapidated building built during the 19th century Industrial Revolution that employed thousands of immigrants to Worcester. He will take photographs and do oral histories with former employees of the foundry. Read more about Miller’s project online at www.clarku.edu/research/access/anton/2005/millerdiary.shtml.
Sara Abrams of Scarborough, Maine, is teaching English in a sugar-cane cutting village in the Dominican Republic and conducting research on Haitian immigrant families. She hopes to learn what influences their decisions about their children's education, and what impact their children's education has on their access to health care and job opportunities.
Rebecca Dezan of Kendall Park, NJ, is spending her summer in Guatemala, organizing and running after-school youth soccer programs in the city of Xela and in a remote mountain community on a coffee plantation in the highlands. The soccer program serves as a community-building activity for the children and their families. Dezan was involved with a similar program in Worcester’s Piedmont neighborhood this year.
Sean Hurley of Torrington, Conn., is conducting research on the "green" market. He is interviewing owners and customers of businesses that are "environment-friendly" in several metropolitan areas of the U.S., including Burlington, Vermont and Portland, Maine. His goal is to explore factors that influence the owners' decisions to start or buy a "green" business in a particular location and the characteristics and attitudes of the people who shop at them.
Michael LaFrancis of Windsor, Conn., is conducting research at the University of Virginia library where the largest collection of William Faulkner's documents is located. He will examine Faulkner's writings prior to and during the production of “The Sound and the Fury” to gain a greater understanding of Faulkner's generative process.
Gwladys Ngo Tedga of Central Africa is spending time at the Ethics Institue of South Africa in Pretoria focusing on the origins and implementation of South Africa's new Code of Conduct, which was created to clean up corruption in the government.
Larissa Price of Keokuk, Iowa, is researching the history of the livestock industry in Uruguay and the influence of that country's economic policies on it. She'll be doing archival research in the Biblioteca Nacional in Montevideo, and then at the Museo de Revolucion Industrial in Fray Bentos.
Adam Tomczik of Northfield, Minn., is researching Jack Kerouac's vision of America, looking at his novels, journal entries, letters and correspondence and traveling across the United States by car and by bus, retracing Kerouac's travels. He will stop in Lowell, Mass; New York City; Chicago; Denver; San Francisco and the Cascades to see what has changed in their history and geography.
Elizabeth Waste of Lyme, NH, is studying the history of the hammer dulcimer - a musical instrument that's a member of the zither family - and taking lessons to learn to play it. The hammer dulcimer is used in folk music traditions in Europe, Asia and the United States, and in particular as an accompaniment to contra dancing.
Evan Wilson of Sharon, Mass., will be doing volunteer work and interning with the Child Hope Initiative Project this summer in squatter settlements in an area of Namibia with high rates of unemployment, crime, and HIV/AIDS. The Child Hope Project provides services to orphaned and vulnerable children, including the disabled and street children; Evan will be working on creating a youth group that will provide formal and informal education to school-aged children who are not in school.
This is the fifth year of the Anton Fellowship Program, which was created by a gift from Barbara ’56 and Thomas ’56 Anton to inspire and enable undergraduates to pursue original research and creative projects. The fellowships range from $500 to $2,500. Recipients also become members of the Society of Anton Fellows, which meets at special gatherings throughout the year to share their project gleanings and experiences with each other and their Clark faculty mentors. The Anton Fellowship Program is directed by Professor Sharon Krefetz.
According to Professor Krefetz, “The new Anton Fellows are a terrific group of students. They're pursuing a wide range of topics for their projects and are traveling all over the world--from Africa to South America and Worcester to San Francisco--to do them.” Krefetz says all of the students have “a genuine passion for their projects and a keen desire to share what they learn with each other and with the Clark community.”
Clark University is a private, co-educational liberal-arts research university with 2,000 undergraduate and 600 graduate students. Since its founding in 1887 as the first all-graduate school in New England, Clark has challenged convention with innovative programs such as the International Studies Stream, the Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the five-year BA/MA programs with the fifth year tuition-free for eligible students.
Angela M. Bazydlo
Associate Director of Media Relations
Clark University
Worcester, Mass.
phone: 508-793-7635
cell: 508-314-6140
www.clarku.edu
|
