For Immediate Release:  April 27, 2007
Contact:  Marsha Nishi Mullan     
610-328-8535      
http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/

Fulbright Grants Awarded to Four Swarthmore Seniors

Four Swarthmore seniors have won Fulbright Grants for 2007. Juliet Braslow of Indio, Calif., will use her grant for research in Ecuador; Nabil Khan of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, plans to explore mental health in Morocco; Tracy Kwon of Bethesda, Md., will study student activism in Korea; and Veronica Chao Lim of Princeton Junction, N.J., will go to Beijing to study public health childbirth practices.

Juliet Braslow '07

Juliet Braslow plans to use her Fulbright Grant to study and explore environmentally and economically sustainable cacao production in Ecuador. She will attend classes and work with specialists at Universidad San Francisco de Quito before getting hands-on experience in the field as well. She will investigate how sustainable techniques have been, and could be, most effective in local ecological and human communities. After working on an experimental cacao plantation, Braslow hopes to learn enough about cacao production that she can help farmers address sustainability, land rehabilitation, and education efforts while integrating herself into the local community. This project will allow Braslow to pursue her love of biology and study its role in the human experience through environmental and social issues.

A Spanish and biology double major, Braslow spent a semester studying abroad in Barcelona. She is a 2006 Goldwater Scholar, a member of the Health and Wellness Committee, the Sexual Health Counselors, and the Dining Services Committee and volunteers with the Club Despertar ESL tutoring program. She also dances with the student company Rhythm 'n Motion, Swarthmore's Gamelan Semara Santi (Balinese percussion group), and in the Student Dance Concerts (Flamenco and African dance). Read more about her in the Palm Springs Desert Sun.

Nabil Kahn '07

Nabil Khan plans to use his Fulbright Grant to "explore and elucidate contemporary understandings of mental 'illness'" in urban Morocco and of the cultural import of the psychiatric field in a place where it is governmentally sanctioned and is growing. "I am interested in understanding what mental health services and the worldviews they represent, so rooted in Western diagnostic and therapeutic traditions, mean to those from a country historically considered a frontier of the Islamic world," said Khan. "Given the country's eclectic background and demographic, I am interested in the political, religious and social dimensions of psychological understanding and how cultural currents inform daily mental healthcare practice."

Khan is a psychology major with minors in biology and English literature. He is a Thomas B. McCabe scholar, selected as an entering student based on leadership, ability, character, personality, and service to school and community, and has been active in Swarthmore for Immigrants' Rights, the Muslim Students Association, Deshi (South Asian Students organization), and Forum for Free Speech and is co-editor of Remappings, the Asian/Asian-Diaspora literary publication. He was also a biology Writing Associate (peer tutor) and a member of the steering committee of the "Beyond the Box 2006" diversity conference. Read more about him in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Veronica Chao Lim '07

Veronica Chao Lim will use her grant to travel to Beijing, China, and surrounding areas to study the differences in public health distribution with respect to childbirth practices. She hopes to compare traditional midwifery practices in the countryside outside Beijing proper with the medicalization of childbirth by ob/gyn physicians in urban hospital settings. Upon her return, Lim plans to be able to work with immigrant communities in the U.S. through the provision of accessible clinical healthcare and the conduct of public health research. At Swarthmore, Lim designed her own special major in immigrant studies and designed her study abroad program focusing on migration from Mexico to the U.S. She has also been active with the Intercultural Center.

Administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards full research grants to graduating seniors and young alumni after an extensive application process. Recipients receive a stipend to cover housing and living expenses.