Pitt Nationality Rooms summer scholars Tahir Abdullah (left) and Adam Iddriss.

While Pitt sophomore Kandi Felmet was in Ecuador this past summer studying traditional methods of treating mental health patients, junior Adam Iddriss was in Tanzania, working in a hospital and studying Swahili.
Meanwhile, Carl Setzer, a student in Pitt’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), was in Taiwan doing research on the attitudes of people there toward reunification with the People’s Republic of China.
Felmet, Iddriss, Setzer, and 36 other Pitt students studied foreign languages, did research, and completed internships in countries around the world during summer 2006, thanks to summer study-abroad scholarships provided by the Pitt Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Programs.
Since 1948, Nationality Rooms committee members and their friends have raised more than $1.57 million to award 895 scholarships, which have enabled Pitt students to experience other countries through five weeks of cultural immersion and study.
The following is a list of Pitt undergraduate and graduate students who were awarded Nationality Rooms study-abroad scholarships for summer 2006.

Undergraduate Awards

• Tahir Abdullah, a junior majoring in political science and Africana studies, received an African Heritage Room Committee Grant to study political and social systems in The Gambia and Senegal and to conduct independent research.
• Public service/nonprofit management major Kathleen Brickley received the Caryl Kline Award for Mid-Career Women to study economics at the London School of Economics and conduct research on non-traditional student-retention strategies at the university level in London.
• An Italian Room Committee Scholarship awarded to junior linguistics major Crystal Christophe supported her study of Italian language and culture as part of the Pitt-in-Italy program in Syracuse, Sicily.
• Aris Cole, a junior social work major, received a Savina S. Skewis Grant to participate in a Puerto Rican culture program at the University of Puerto Rico.
• An Austrian Room Committee Scholarship supported study by Nathan Darrigo, a junior political science major, of intercultural communication and Austrian art in Vienna.
• Senhal Desai, a junior majoring in anthropology and political science, received the David L. Lawrence Memorial Award to do an internship focusing on women’s health issues in Mumbai, India.
• A Savina S. Skewis Grant to Kandi Felmet, a sophomore majoring in psychology and sociology, supported her research on the treatment of mental health patients by traditional means as part of the Pitt Latin American Studies Field Trip in Ibarra, Ecuador.
• Amanda Gregg, a sophomore majoring in history and economics, received a Helen Pool Rush Award to study the Russian language through the Pitt-in-Moscow program.
• Adam Iddriss, a junior majoring in bioengineering and chemistry, was awarded the African Heritage Room/Walter C. Worthington Foundation Scholarship to study Swahili and work in a hospital on medical device instrumentation, operation, and repair in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
• Nancy Luckett, a junior majoring in the history of art and architecture, received the Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt Award to study French language and culture at the Sorbonne and conduct independent research on 19th-century women artists in Paris.
• Sophomore business major Joshua MacCarty received a German Nationality Room Committee Scholarship to study the German language at the Goethe Institute in Dusseldorf, Germany.
• Sophomore communications major Gina Mazzotta received the Dr. Douglas Radcliff-Umstead Memorial Award to study Italian language and culture through the Pitt-in-Italy program in Syracuse, Sicily.
• A Helen Pool Rush Award supported study by junior nursing major Joanna McKee of medical terminology in Spanish; the award also enabled McKee to participate in a hospital placement in Patzcuaro, Mexico.
• Dartel McRae, a junior majoring in political science and philosophy, was awarded the David L. Lawrence Memorial Grant to participate in the Seventh Annual Global Leadership Program at Charles University in Prague.
• Carolyn Miller, a junior majoring in English writing and Spanish, received the Women’s International Club Award to study the effects of men’s emigration on the women of Ibarra, Ecuador.
• An Israel Heritage Room Committee Scholarship supported study by Alexander Moore, a sophomore literature and philosophy major, of biblical Hebrew at Rothburg International School in Jerusalem.
• Piotr Roszczenko, a junior majoring in ecology and philosophy, was awarded the Polish Room Committee/Kusciuszko Foundation Scholarship to study the Polish language and conduct research at an outpatient child/family clinic in Krakow, Poland.
• An Austrian Room Committee Scholarship funded study by Andrej Savol, a sophomore majoring in applied mathematics and music, of the German language and music in Salzburg, Austria.
• Laurel Schwartz, a junior majoring in political science and history, received a John H. Tsui Memorial Award to study Chinese language and participate in the Pitt-in-China program in the People’s Republic of China, including Tibet.
• The Eugene Manasterski Memorial Award enabled Marta Sheremeta, a sophomore neuroscience major, to study the German language and conduct research on the effects in L’viv, Ukraine, of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster 20 years after it occurred.
• Charise Shively, a junior majoring in neuroscience, received a Women’s International Club Grant to study Spanish and participate in a healthcare practicum in Santiago, Dominican Republic.
• Megan Smith, a junior majoring in politics and philosophy, was awarded the John F. Kennedy Memorial Scholarship to study Irish literature related to Ireland’s Great Famine and emigration at American College Dublin.
• Raynard E. Washington, a junior neuroscience major, received an African Heritage Room Committee Grant to participate in a community health and social program and to conduct research in Tanzania’s Karagwe district.

Graduate Awards

• Poetry major Sten Carlson received a Scandinavian Society of Western Pennsylvania Scholarship to study changes in the Sami cultural landscape since the 1970s in northern Sweden.
• Medical student Enrico Castillo received the Ruth Crawford Mitchell Memorial Award to participate in a medical internship and to research the inter-relatedness of culture and medicine in Uttaranchal, India.
• Law student Claudia Garman was awarded a Hungarian Room Committee Scholarship to study human rights abuses against Romani women and children in Budapest.
• A Syria-Lebanon Room Committee Scholarship supported research by poetry major Emily Gropp on the role of the Arab poet in the community and how that role affects poetry in Beirut, Lebanon.
• Medical student Anna Gushchin received a Stanley Prostrednik Award to conduct research on the treatment of cataract blindness in rural and urban areas at the Tilganga Eye Centre in Bhaktapur, Nepal.
• International law major Mark Johnson received a Japanese Room Committee Scholarship to study intellectual property law and to intern in Tokyo.
• Anar Ladhani, an international development major, was awarded an Indian Room Committee Scholarship to intern with the Foundation for Sustainable Development in Udaipur, India.
• Medical student Dahmi Lee received the James W. Knox Memorial Award to study international health policies concerning migrant workers and to volunteer at clinics in Seoul, South Korea.
• David Seitz, a communications and rhetoric major, received a Stanley Prostrednik Grant to research the cross-cultural meaning of American cemeteries in France to international visitors.
• GSPIA student Carl Setzer received a Chinese Room Committee Scholarship to conduct research on attitudes toward the reunification of the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan in Taipei, Taiwan.
• Political science major Amy Erica Smith received a Stanley Prostrednik Grant to study the effect of political values on citizen participation in government in La Paz and El Alto, Bolivia.
• History major Katherine Sorrels was awarded an Israel Heritage Room Committee Scholarship to research the influence of Central European Jewish intellectuals on European society between 1880 and 1930 in Jerusalem.
• English/film studies major Kirsten A. Strayer was awarded a Lithuanian Room Committee Scholarship to study the development of Mexican national cinema in Mexico City.
• Monique Thomas, an international law major, was awarded an African Heritage Room Committee Scholarship to study political and social systems in The Gambia and Senegal and to conduct independent research.
• Medical student Andres Turner received the Ivan Santa-Cruz Memorial Award to study the effects of treatment of depressed women on their children in Santiago, Chile.
• Communications major Qian Zhang received a John H. Tsui Memorial Award to research the impact of early Hollywood movies on Chinese culture between 1910 and 1930 in Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong.