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Six Swarthmore Seniors Win Fulbright Fellowships

For Immediate Release:  May 4, 2006
Contact:  Marsha Nishi Mullan     
610-328-8535      
http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/


Six Swarthmore Seniors Win Fulbright Fellowships


Six Swarthmore College seniors are winners of Fulbright Fellowships for 2006.  They are Rebecca Brubaker of Kimberton, Pa.; Elizabeth Buckner of White Post, Va.; Toby David of Columbia, Md.; Lauren Fenton of St. Nom La Breteche, France; Amara Telleen of Marlborough, Mass.; and Siyuan Xie of North Andover, Mass.

Rebecca Brubaker, a political science Honors major with an Honors minor in psychology, will use her award to travel to Cyprus.  Brubaker, the daughter of Debra Hutchinson and E. Lynn Brubaker, is a 2002 graduate of Kimberton Waldorf School.  She spent the summer of her junior year working for a bi-communal NGO in Cyprus.  She will return next year and plans to explore internal models of co-existence by conducting interviews with former inhabitants of a town known for the sustained positive relations between its Greek and Turkish Cypriot residents which contrast with the civil conflict prevailing on rest of the island.

Elizabeth Buckner, an education studies and sociology/anthropology special Honors major, will use the Fulbright to return to Morocco to study the nation's experience with multi-lingualism.  Buckner spent a semester abroad in Morocco in 2004 and worked at a cross-cultural educational organization the following summer.  The fellowship will allow her to continue her study of Moroccan culture and Arabic.  She is the daughter of Michele Worthing and Larry Buckner and a 2002 graduate of Clarke County High School in Berryville, Va.  At Swarthmore, Buckner acts as a Career Peer Advisor and helped organize the "Beyond the Box 2006" multicultural conference.  She is also a member of the women's rugby team.

Toby David, an honors English literature major with a minor in religion, will use the Fulbright award to study religious responses to the tsunami on the southern coast of Sri Lanka.  David is the son of Susan and Alex David and a 2002 graduate of Wilde Lake High School.  At Swarthmore, his English major emphasizes creative writing, and he has compiled a portfolio of poetry in lieu of a thesis.  He is a member of the improvisational comedy troupe Vertigo-go and is active in theater.

Lauren Fenton, an honors philosophy major with minors in Russian and political science, is the daughter of Gisele and Douglas Fenton and a 2002 graduate of Lycee International in St. Germain En Laye, France.  She plans to return to Russia, where she spent a semester studying abroad and had a Lang Summer Internship with an NGO, the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations.  At Swarthmore, she was the founder and editor of an international cultural and political paper called the Agora and was a French tutor.  She plans to film a documentary on the post-Soviet revival of shamanism in the Altai region of Siberia with her Fulbright Fellowship.

Amara Telleen, a Russian studies special Honors major with a minor in linguistics, will use the Fulbright award to teach English in Russia for a year.  A 2002 graduate of Northfield Mount Hermon School, she is the daughter of Kenneth and Mary Hnottavange-Telleen and the late Jennifer Nichols.  At Swarthmore, Telleen is a Russian tutor and a long-time member of the jazz a cappella group Oscar & Emily.

Siyuan Xie, an English literature major with a minor in mathematics, plans to pursue a combined oral history and creative writing project in Shanghai, China, with her fellowship.  She is the daughter of Xiaorong Shen and Weiqin Xie and a 2002 graduate of Phillips Academy Andover.  At Swarthmore, she is an editor for the literary publication Small Craft Warnings.

Administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, the Fulbright Scholar Program awards full research fellowships to graduating seniors after an extensive application process.  Recipients receive free housing and a stipend to cover living expenses.