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Fulbright Grants Awarded to 24 Members of the Pomona
College Class of 2007, Breaking School’s Record
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Note: An updated release
on Fulbright Awards for the Class of 2007 is available.
Twenty-four graduates of the Pomona College Class of 2007
have received prestigious Fulbright Fellowships to pursue
research or teach around the globe, breaking Pomona’s
all-time record for Fulbrights received. In addition, four
graduates from earlier class years received Fulbrights,
bringing this year's full total to 28. The previous record
was set last year with fifteen recipients.
 The Fulbright U.S. Student Program, founded in 1946 and
sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, offers
opportunities for recent graduates, postgraduate candidates
and developing professionals and artists to conduct
career-launching study and research abroad. Designed to
increase cultural understanding between U.S. students and
citizens of foreign countries, the grants generally provide
round-trip transportation, language or orientation courses,
book and research allowances, and maintenance for the
academic year, based on living costs in the host country.
Among the Pomona College Class of 2007 recipients, 10 were
awarded Fellowship Research Grants.
Maggie Fick, an international relations major from
Bainbridge Island, WA, will travel to Niger to study the
changing role of women in Tuareg culture in urban and rural
contexts. Following coursework at Université Abdou Moumouni
(UAM), she will conduct field research in the capital city
of Niamey and in several rural, predominantly Tuareg
villages, as well as volunteer with a Niamey-based women’s
rights organization, called Tin Hinan. Her research will
focus on exploring how Tuareg women have been affected by
urbanization and environmental and political changes. She
will also study Tamachek, the language most commonly spoken
by Tuaregs in Niger. Following the Fulbright, she will apply
to graduate school in comparative African politics or work
for an African politics research institute or an NGO in the
United States or Africa devoted to women’s rights.
Ashley M. Jackson, a psychology major from Seattle, WA, will
study education reform in Cotonou, Benin. She will examine
the implementation and efficacy of a recent nation-wide
reform of curriculum and assessment that aims to replace
rote learning with the development of skills. Using
interviews and questionnaires, she will evaluate the reform
and its effectiveness through the opinions of students,
teachers, and other stakeholders in the reform. She also
hopes to volunteer with an HIV prevention campaign in Benin.
Her future plans include pursuing a masters degree in
international education or public health.
Brian Kastl, a geology major from Silverdale, WA, will
travel to the North Island of New Zealand to study the
eruption-triggering mechanisms of Tongariro Volcano, in an
effort to improve the accuracy of volcanic eruption
predictions. To that end, he will conduct geochemical
analysis at the University of Auckland to determine how
magma mixing events triggered the eruption. Tongariro
Volcano is situated next to the mountain that was filmed as
Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings. He also hopes to tutor
students in math and coach youth soccer. Following the
Fulbright, he plans to attend the University of Hawaii,
Manoa to pursue a Ph.D. program with field research focused
on violent, volcanically-triggered mudflows that threaten
lives on New Zealand's North Island.
Lily Muldoon, a biology and public policy double
major from Denver, CO, will travel to Kenya to study public
health and tour three clean water projects to learn “best
practices.” Her major focus will be working to continue the
development and building of a water pipeline project in
Kayafungo that she helped create in collaboration with
community leaders and members, water engineers, Kenyan
government officials and U.S. students. The proposed
nine-mile pipeline will bring clean water to ten schools,
the region’s only health clinic in the region and hundreds
of families. Currently women and children walk up to six
hours each day to collect water. Following her Fulbright,
she intends to earn a masters degree in public health and a
doctorate in medicine, with future plans of returning to
East Africa for clinical work and in policy development.
Femke Oldham, a public policy analysis major from
Vashon Island, WA, will study the “Policy Implications of
Community-Based Water Projects in Mexico." In the
three-phase project, she will work alongside professors and
graduate students at the Colegio de Posgraduados at the
Institución de Enseñanza e Investigación en Ciencias
Agricolas, in Montecillo, to perform research that seeks to
answer the question: Are community-based water projects in
Mexico a successful form of water resource management? She
also plans to volunteer with a youth soccer league. Her
future plans include graduate school in environmental policy
in either the United States or the Netherlands.
Michael Piech, an Asian studies major from Holland, NY, will
travel to Nepal to study the emerging and evolving film
industry and its social and political effects on Nepali
culture in the Kathmandu valley. How Nepali people and ideas
are depicted by the film industry has political and cultural
ramifications due to the widespread dispersion of films
within the culture; especially among the youth. Currently,
the Nepali film industry is seeking to extricate itself from
the prodigious Bollywood system and form a uniquely Nepali
identity. His focus is whether or not an indigenous film
industry will strengthen traditional Nepali culture, values
and morals. He also plans to volunteer at Raksha Nepal, an
NGO which educates and rehabilitates women who have worked
in exploitative professions. After the Fulbright, he plans
to attend graduate school.
Reed Schuler, a politics major from Seattle, WA, will study
mass transit and urban planning in Shanghai, China. Before
his research begins, Schuler will spend four months studying
Mandarin Chinese in Northern China, through a Critical
Language Enhancement Award from the National Security
Language Initiative. Beginning in December, he will research
the planning of Shanghai's public transportation system, in
the context of rapidly increasing car ownership, and amidst
preparation for the 2010 Expo. His research will have a
particular emphasis on access to public transit for
low-income communities and on the public policy mechanisms
in place for responding to the input and needs of citizens.
Kelvin Sun, an Asian studies major from Overland Park, KS,
will travel to Beijing, to investigate the impact of
information technology on China’s news media landscape. He
is particularly interested in the forces that led to the
development of internet news, its influence on the public
sphere, and the future implications of how China is adopting
communication technology to suit its own unique needs and
situation. He also hopes to take some classes on global
journalism and on-line communication at Tsinghua
University's School of Journalism and Communication. Sun
also received the Fulbright Critical Language Enhancement
Award and allowing him to study advanced Chinese for four
months before the Fulbright Research grant. Following the
Fulbright, he hopes to enroll in either a joint
journalism/law program or graduate program with a focus on
East Asian Studies.
Fulbright Research Grants were also received by Allison
Bailey, a biology major from Livermore, CA, who will
research a biology topic in Norway; and Anna Gressel, a
neuroscience major from New York City, who will conduct a
research project in women’s studies Morocco.
Fourteen of Pomona College’s Class of 2007 Fulbright Fellows
were awarded grants to teach English in foreign countries:
• Rebecca Abbey, a biology major, with an environmental
analysis minor from Tucson, AZ, teaching in Indonesia;
• Elizabeth Cobacho, a sociology major from
Chicago, teaching in Brazil;
• Christopher Dinkel, an international relations and
politics double major, from Victoria, KS, teaching in
Malaysia;
• Emily Durham, an English major, from Greensboro, NC,
teaching in South Korea;
• Kiyomi Gelber, an environmental analysis: race, class,
gender and the environment major, from San Anselmo, CA,
teaching in Thailand;
• Benjamin Jenson, an international relations major from
Minneapolis, MN, teaching in Hong Kong;
• Laura Kaneko, a sociology major, from Whittier, CA,
teaching in Spain;
• Doris Lee, a psychology major, from Los Angeles, CA,
teaching in South Korea;
• Julia Longenecker, a linguistics and cognitive
science major from Vermont, to teach in Brazil;
• Katie Lenhoff, a Russian and East European Studies double
major, from Yorba Linda, CA, teaching in Russia;
• Alec Palmerton, a chemistry major, from Minneapolis,
teaching in South Korea;
• Alexandra Romano, a politics major, from Fort Worth, TX,
teaching in Germany;
• Samuel Stromberg, a math and history double major, with a
minor in Asian Studies, from Denver, CO, teaching in Hong
Kong; and
• Min Yoo, an Asian American Studies major, from La Cañada
Flintridge, CA, teaching in South Korea.
Class of 2007 alternates for a Fulbright award are:
David DeBey, who would travel to Germany to teach
English; Laura Gamse,
to South Africa for a project on filmmaking; Shayle Kann, to
Australia for an environmental sciences project; and Lauren
Robinson, to New Zealand for a project in museum studies.
Four Pomona College alumni were also awarded Fulbrights.
Julian Wong, Class of 1998, will travel to China to research
existing Chinese and international laws affecting the
development of wind energy, evaluate the effectiveness of
these laws and study the incentives or disincentives they
create for various stakeholders. He will then propose
improvements to the legal framework that will better
facilitate the development of wind power as a clean energy
alternative to coal. Currently, China relies on coal, the
most polluting of fossil fuels, for 70 percent of its
electricity needs, resulting in emissions that cause acid
rain formation over 30 percent of the country and that
contribute to climate change.
Christina Elmore, Class of 2006, was awarded a
Fulbright to teach English in Vrutky, Slovakia.
Andres Gonzalez, Class of 1999, will travel to Turkey for a
research project involving photography.
Sarah Schaffer, Class of 2006, was awarded a
Fulbright to teach English in Chile beginning March 2008.
She is currently working for the U.S. House of
Representatives' Armed Services Committee on Military
Readiness.
Over the decades, the Fulbright Program has provided more
than 250,000 students, scholars and professionals worldwide
with the opportunity to observe each others’ political,
economic and cultural institutions, exchange ideas and
embark on joint ventures of importance to the general
welfare of the world’s inhabitants.
Pomona College is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts
institutions, offering a comprehensive program in the arts,
humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Its
hallmarks include small classes, close relationships between
students and faculty, and a range of opportunities for
student research.
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