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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Laura Ingalls (laura.ingalls@worldlearning.org) in Washington, 1.202.646.6973
World Learning/SIT Announces the Alice Rowan Swanson Fellowship Award
The $100,000 fund will support SIT Study Abroad alums pursuing human rights projects.
BRATTLEBORO, VT (August 11, 2009) -- World Learning/SIT is pleased to announce the creation of the Alice Rowan Swanson Fellowship Fund. The $100,000 fund, established by the family of SIT Study Abroad Nicaragua ’06 alumna Alice Rowan Swanson, is a living tribute to Alice, her passion for bridging cultures and helping others, and the role that SIT Study Abroad played in her life. An Amherst '07 graduate, Alice was killed while riding her bike to work in 2008.
Alice's family believes that Alice would have spent her life working for human rights abroad, particularly in developing countries. This fund will annually award fellowships to SIT program alumni who would like to return to the country of their program to pursue further development projects that benefit human rights in that region.
Alice Rowan Swanson always wanted to live abroad and experience cultures different from her own. She began traveling with her family at the age of 10 and continued to follow her passion for international learning at Amherst College. Alice spent her second college semester in Nicaragua as a student with SIT Study Abroad's Nicaragua: Revolution, Transformation, and Civil Society program. Through this program, she felt connected and engaged with the local community and fully immersed in Nicaraguan culture. She discussed with local community members the need for clean drinking water and improved medical help. Upon returning to the US, she applied for and received a grant to continue her work with local communities in Nicaragua following her senior year of college. After her second stay in Nicaragua, Alice served a four-month internship at the Middle East Institute, and went to work for IREX, an international nonprofit organization. Her co-workers observed that Alice "helped to build bridges of understanding between often disparate cultures, a task for which her welcoming personality and sharp intellect made her uniquely and excellently equipped."
To continue Alice's legacy, her family has established this Fellowship to support SIT alumni who seek to devote some months of their life pursuing a project that supports human rights: education, nutrition, medical care and freedom from tyranny. In so doing, each Fellow will honor and pay tribute to the work that Alice had undertaken to make the world a better place and to her desire to make a difference in the world for those less fortunate whom she viewed as part of her global family.
Ideal candidates for the Fellowship will possess qualities resembling those of Alice Rowan Swanson, in the words of her family, friends and co-workers: "…intelligence and passion for learning; great warmth and friendliness; a smiling, welcoming personality, sharp intellectual rigor and fine writing, and an adventurous desire to experience untraditional locations, and through her personal initiative, to make the world a better place."
Interested candidates can learn more about qualifying for the Fellowship and can download an application here.
Learn more about World Learning:
The Experiment in International Living
SIT Study Abroad
SIT Graduate Institute
International Development Programs
World Learning works globally to enhance the capacity and commitment of individuals, institutions, and communities to create a more peaceful and just world through education, training and exchange programs.
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