LAURA POOLE Computer science and mathematics double major Laura Poole will spend next year working as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in India. In 2011, on her first day of a two-week backpacking trip to India, Poole instantly fell head over heels in love with the country. “My experience in India was life altering due to the nation’s inspirational culture, rich history, varied sights, and, most memorably, the kind citizens I was fortunate enough to meet,” Poole wrote in her application. “I am incredibly eager to return to experience the culture as more than a tourist, develop language skills and give back to the population that welcomed me so warmly.” During her time at Amherst, Poole has worked as a teacher in a variety
NICK SCHCOLNIK Nick Schcolnik was awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant fellowship to Argentina. The Chicago native cited both previous teaching experience in Spain and an “eagerness to share and partake in Argentine culture” as his main desires in pursuing the fellowship. Schcolnik, whose father is Argentine, wrote in his application about the difficulties of checking the box that most accurately described him during a standardized test in eighth grade. “At odds in my mind were the seemingly contradictory facts that I was white and yet had a father from Argentina — a country that I recognized fell into the ‘Latino’ category. What, if anything, did the fact that I had a father from Argentina say about me? And, if it did mean something, did it mean that I
was Latino?” An interest in further exploring his identity led Schcolnik to a double-major in Spanish and annual participation in the Amherst Spanish Department play; it has also, now, led him back to Argentina for the Fulbright. While in Argentina, he hopes to join a sports club to immerse himself in the culture and spend time with people his age. Schcolnik plans to go to law school upon returning from abroad, and plans to work in a law firm or with law students in Argentina, too.
CHELSEA TEJADA Growing up as a Spanish-speaking Colombian-American, Chelsea Tejada was often called upon to serve as a mediator between cultures. Next year, she’ll continue to do just this when she travels to Brazil as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant. A sexuality, women’s and gender studies major, Tejada plans to volunteer at a local women’s shelter and participate in the region’s LGBTQ community, on top of teaching. Not only will this allow her to get to know and speak with locals, it will also help her contribute to the local community. Tejada has served as both an English teacher and dance instructor and has tutored local girls through Girls Inc. Last summer, teaching French-based
DYLAN VASEY Richmond, Va. native Dylan Vasey will travel to Morocco next year as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant. The black studies and history double major wrote in his application that “teaching in new places has repeatedly shown me the value of learning about a culture by trying to making my own comprehensible to others.” The Fulbright ETA fellowship will help Vasey expand on earlier teaching experiences in Mississippi and France, and the unique crossroads of interaction between Europe and the Middle East that Morocco offers will help Vasey bring a “more global perspective back to my own country.” At Amherst, Vasey’s experience has ranged from tutoring music to cap-
of areas. She’s taught swimming, served as a teaching assistant in the Computer Science Department, taught and tutored local middle schools through the Vela Scholars Teaching Program at Amherst Middle School and spent a summer in China teaching English, to name only a few. Her experiences both in and out of the classroom have fueled Poole’s desire to teach English abroad for several years, and she hopes that her year as a Fulbright ETA she can pass on the wisdom that “the power to change the world lies in our hands.”
ballet in English to Mandarin-speaking Chinese students gave her an “unexpected foray into the challenges and joys of teaching and communication,” Tejada wrote in her application. Traveling to Brazil in 2015 is particularly poignant to Tejada, given that it will be after the World Cup but before the Summer Olympics. “Working under the Fulbright as an English Teaching Assistant will allow me to foster cross-cultural communication and understand, two things necessary for the success of those events, and a fundamental part of the nation’s future in a globalized world,” she wrote in her application. Upon returning from Brazil, Tejada plans to pursue a career as a sexual health educator.
taining an intramural soccer team to interning at the Emily Dickinson Museum. Over the summer, he served as a member of Mississippi Teaching Corps and worked as an English teaching assistant in France. While in Morocco, Vasey plans to make connections with members of the university community in order to understand intellectual life. He also hopes to spend time familiarizing himself with Moroccan music, as it has a very distinctive history from the majority of Western classical and popular music. He may even learn to play a new instrument. Upon returning from his Fulbright, Vasey plans to enroll in a Ph.D. program and eventually teach at the university level.
WATSONS GUS GREENSTEIN Gus Greenstein was awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for the 20142015 academic year. The award fully funds a year of independent study and travel for a self-designed project. His project, entitled “Hydropower-Induced Displacement and Livelihood Effects: Where Specific Places Warrant Specific Restoration Strategies” will send him to India, Chile, Paraguay and Thailand to further explore the effects of hydroelectric dams in relation to sociocultural, economic and political systems. “[T]he Watson represents the perfect vehicle for exploring the extent of the consequences … and, more generally, for increasing my awareness of the challenges to crafting policy that balances development goals with environ-
MEGHNA SRIDHAR Meghna Sridhar, a law, jurisprudence and social thought major from New Delhi, India, received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for the 2014-2015 academic year. Sridhar will explore the worldwide popularity of the Sanskrit epic “Ramayana” in Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Italy and South Africa through her project, entitled “Retracing Rama’s Journey: Mapping the Hindu Epic Ramayana as Global Tradition of Mythmaking and Storytelling.” Sridhar plans to explore the distinct versions of “Ramayana” in each country and their sociopolitical roles, eventually putting together her own version. In her Watson application, Sridhar wrote her ultimate goal of the project is “to gain a sense of what both the ‘Ramayana’ is (through perfor-
mental and social well-being,” Greenstein wrote in his application. “In exploring this [issue] in diverse contexts, I will be able to gain a more complex understanding of the kinds of community-specific characteristics that necessitate highly individualized attention in compensation planning.” Originally from Santa Rosa, Calif., at Amherst Greenstein majored in environmental studies and was the captain of the men’s cross country team. During his junior year, Greenstein spent a semester in the Brazilian Amazon, where he furthered his interest in the impacts of hydroelectric dams, and according to his application, “developed a mango addiction.” Gus is eager to hang his hammock in increasingly stranger places while pursuing a deeper understanding of the challenges in crafting development policies that are both environmentally-effective and socially-attentive.
mance, translation and art) and what it means to the people of each culture and community.” She added: “My ‘Ramayana,’ growing up, has not been a static 24,000-verse poem in an ancient tongue, but a living, breathing narrative encountered through festivals, grandmother’s tales and street plays. I want to unpack, untangle, and weave together all these divergent ‘Ramayanas,’ and at the end of my journey, produce my own. I wish to put myself in a unique position to understand, translate and craft a new ‘Ramayana,’ a global, multicultural retelling suited to the modern age.”
MAY 23, 2014 • THE AMHERST STUDENT • 5