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St. Olaf announces eight Fulbright Scholars

By Amy Gage
June 18, 2007

The flagship international educational program sponsored by the United States government, the Fulbright Program is designed to "increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries," according to the Fulbright website.

Fulbrights07
St. Olaf's newest Fulbright recipients (front row, (l-r): Kathryn Sederberg, Andrea Horbinski, Mary Sotos, Michael Reading and (second row) Leigh Billings and Elizabeth Jensen. Not pictured are Ross Kanaga and Jessica Burtness. Photo courtesy of the Manitou Messenger.
St. Olaf College is proud to announce that eight St. Olaf graduates (or soon-to-be graduates) were named this month as Fulbright Scholars for 2007-08. That's a record number of honorees for the college, which also announced the name of a Fulbright alternate.

On average, about six Oles win a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship each year.

The following students have been awarded Fulbright grants:

Leigh Billings '07, of Wautoma, Wisc., will study in China. An Asian Studies and political science major, Billings will explore the relationships among China's environmental policy, international environmental organizations and Chinese non-governmental environmental organizations.

Jessica Burtness '06, of Coon Rapids, Minn., will study in India. A biology and biomolecular science major, she will research the Asian honey bee, particularly the mechanisms it uses to resist the parasitic mite that currently is infesting and killing Western honey bees.

Andrea Horbinski '07, of Marlton, N.J., will study in Japan. A classics and Asian studies major, Horbinski will attend university seminars and carry out close reading and research in her study of the recent phenomenon of "hyper-nationalist" manga and its message in context.

Elizabeth Jensen '07, of Peacham, Vt., will study in Norway. A computer science and psychology major, she will join the Highly Distributed Computing Group at the University of Troms, where she will design and implement a group of partially autonomous robots running on distributed systems, investigating the effectiveness of her system in comparison to one that is centrally controlled.

Ross Kanaga '05, an economics and studio art major at St. Olaf, will work in Thailand as an English teaching assistant. He will complement his teaching of English to middle- or high school students by offering a cross-cultural cooking club.

Michael Reading '07, of Edina, Minn., will study in Canada. A political science major, he will examine how local institutions in Toronto assist immigrants in becoming citizens. His study will explore the relationship between municipal government agencies and NGOs, and assess their contribution to immigrants' political and social incorporation into Canadian society.

Kathryn Sederberg '07, of Duluth, Minn., will study in Germany. With majors in both German and Franco-German Studies through the St. Olaf Center for Integrative Studies, "Kathryn is well equipped to teach English in Germany while carrying out a research project that studies the bi-national perspective in a recent Franco-German history textbook," said Solveig Zempel, Fulbright adviser and associate dean of Interdisciplinary and General Studies.

Mary Sotos '07, of Elmhurst, Ill., will study in Belgium. An environmental studies major, Sotos will attend university courses and carry out interviews in the Brussels-Capital region to examine how civic organizations influence Belgium's highly regionalized energy policy and performance.

Fulbright alternate
The Fulbright Scholar alternate chosen from St. Olaf is Chelsea Gordon '06, a studio art and German major with a management studies concentration. Gordon proposes to pursue a postgraduate diploma in fine arts at the National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries, while working at Creative New Zealand, a nonprofit arts organization.

"All the faculty members who work with these students and all of the 24 students who applied for this grant are proud of the work these students do and their interest in pursuing further work abroad," Zempel said.

The winners and alternate were feted recently at an invitation-only reception on campus, to which they invited professors and associate deans who helped them through the process.

Zempel herself works year-round on the project, which includes a faculty committee and particularly intensive individual work with students during September and October.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.