Press Release
Six Caribbean Citizens Are awarded U.S. Fulbright Scholarships
Bridgetown, Barbados, Tuesday August 23, 2011 - Six Caribbean citizens have been successful in their bid for a place in the competitive U.S. Fulbright Fellowship programs. These scholarships will allow them to pursue graduate level education in the United States from this year.
The scholars are Thandiwe Lyle (Grenada), Stacy Gumbs (St. Kitts and Nevis) Claudius Sanford (Dominica), Maxine Browne (St. Vincent) Lindy Damiana Ann and Emefa Sewordor (both from St. Lucia). The scholars are pursuing a wide range of Masters level and doctoral degrees in a variety of subjects including economics, psychology, dance, heritage studies, arts administration and public administration.
Thandiwe Lyle has been granted a Fulbright foreign student scholarship. An attorney who was trained at the University of the West Indies (UWI), she has been admitted to Georgetown University where she will earn a master's degree in international Business and Economic Law. Ms. Lyle's program begins on July 10 with an intensive four week Foundations of American Law and Legal Education course.
Stacy Gumbs a teacher at C.F. Bryant Community College has been granted a Fulbright Faculty Development scholarship. She has been admitted to Teacher's College, Columbia University where she will earn a master's degree in organizational psychology.
Claudius Sanford is the Deputy Leader of the United Worker Party in Dominica, a member of the Eastern Caribbean's indigenous people the Kalinago and a teacher at the Dominica State College. He has also been granted a Fulbright Faculty Development scholarship allowing him to study at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He will be looking to earn a master's degree in Economic Policy.
Emefa Sewordor an economist at the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank has been granted a Fulbright Foreign Student Scholarship. She has been admitted to Georgia State University where she will earn a doctoral degree in Public Administration. She previously earned a bachelor's degree in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Toronto and a master's degree in Economics from the University of British Columbia.
Maxine Browne a dance development officer with the Government of St. Vincent has been awarded a Fulbright Foreign Student scholarship. She will attend the American University where she will earn a master's degree in Arts Administration. Ms Browne previously earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of the West Indies (Mona) and the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts (Joint Program).
Linda Ann Damiana Alexander, Senior Lecturer in French and Head of the Department of Humanities at the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College has been granted a Fulbright Visiting Researcher Scholarship. Ms. Alexander will spend four months at Tulane University in New Orleans working on an academic project entitled "Constructing National Identity through the Arts and Heritage Education
Background
The Fulbright Program, which celebrates its 65th anniversary in 2011, is the "flagship international exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government."
The Program operates in more than 155 countries and has provided over 285,000 participants - chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential - with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research in each others' countries and exchange ideas. Approximately 7,000 grants are awarded annually.
In the words of the late U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright, the program he authored "aims to bring a little more knowledge, a little more reason and a little more compassion into world affairs and thereby to increase the chance that nations will learn at last to live in peace and friendship."
The Foreign Fulbright Student Program is administered annually by the United States Embassy, Bridgetown for applicants from the Eastern Caribbean. The Fulbright Faculty Development scholarships are awarded annually to teachers and lecturers at institutions of higher education in the English speaking Eastern Caribbean. Final selections are made by the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
For additional information on this program, visit the website of the U.S. Embassy at Bridgetown http://barbados.usembassy.gov/fulbright_program.html or the Fulbright website: http://foreign.fulbrightonline.org.