Fulbright Winners

GAMBIER, Ohio (May 24, 2005) Six Kenyon seniors have won prestigious Fulbright fellowships to teach or conduct research abroad in 2005-06. Under the auspices of the program, these six members of the Class of 2005 will fan out across the globe to countries ranging from South Korea, to Germany, to India. Alaina Baker and Ted Samuel have won Fulbright research fellowships this year. Recipients of teaching fellowships include Elisabeth Divis, Thomas Fleischman, Annie Mark, and Mia Tyler.

Alaina Baker, a neuroscience major and recipient of a research fellowship, will spend the year in Göttingen, Germany, examining early protein alterations in Alzheimer's disease. She also plans to take graduate courses at the University of Göttingen.

Also receiving a research fellowship is Ted Samuel, an international studies major. He will travel to Tamil Nadu, in Southern India, to study the social movement of Aravanis, a transgendered community, and how members of the community promote their agenda to the Tamil public. He says his primary interest lies in how the Aravanis use cultural festivals and beauty pageants to advertise their plight.

Both Elisabeth Divis and Annie Mark will be spending their Fulbright year in South Korea, teaching English. In addition, Divis plans to research contemporary South Korean poetics and says she hopes to learn more about the current literary scene in East Asia. She and Mark, both English majors, met during their junior year in the College's study-abroad program in Exeter, England, and connected with each other over their shared interest in pursuing Fulbrights in South Korea.

Thomas Fleischman will be teaching in eastern Germany. A history major with a special interest in East German studies, he plans additionally to develop a research or writing project during his Fulbright year.

Mia Tyler, a double major in political science and German, will also head to Germany to teach English. She has a special interest in studying second-language acquisition among ethnic Turkish youth living in major German cities.

The J. William Fulbright Fellowship Program was established in 1946, at the end of World War II, to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of people, knowledge, and skills. Grants are made for university teaching, advanced research, graduate study, and teaching in elementary and secondary schools.

Alaina Baker	Ted Samuel	Elisabeth Divis
Annie Mark	Mia Tyler	Thomas Fleischman