ATHENS, Ohio -- Six Ohio University students have been awarded Fulbright awards from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. This is the highest number of students from Ohio University to win grants or fellowships in this prestigious national competition.
Fulbright award winners are: Vince Baratta, German/German Education major; Jennifer DeMuria, master's student in Environmental Studies and Southeast Asian Studies; Kris Imbrigotta, German/International Studies-European Studies major; David Lee, Visual Communications master's student; Dawn Rogier, Linguistics master's student; and Amy Thompson, Visual Communications master's student.
Associate Provost for International Programs Josep Rota said, "Having six students win Fulbright awards reflects well on Ohio University's focus on international education. These students embody Ohio University's commitment to international understanding and solidarity, as well as the development of skills and knowledge that will make our graduates competitive in a global marketplace."
Recent graduate Vince Baratta and senior Kris Imbrigotta won Fulbright grants to teach in Germany. Annette Steigerwald, a visiting professor of German, has provided language instruction to both Fulbright winners and praised their German skills. She said, "Both these young men will make fine ambassadors for Ohio University, Ohio and the United States. I know Vince and Kris have what it takes to be successful, especially their tenacity, willingness to work hard and ability to see foreign language education as a ticket to the world."
Baratta has wanted to be a high school German teacher since he first learning the language at his Pittsburgh high school. He continued that path through college, where he participated in weekly German conversation evenings, tutored students in German and taught elementary school children German through the FLEX (Foreign Language Exploratory) program. He is currently student teaching German at a high school outside Pittsburgh. Baratta looks forward to being able to enrich his classroom teaching with tools and real-life experiences he will bring back from Germany after completing his Fulbright Teaching Assistantship.
A native of Lakewood, Ohio, Imbrigotta said he has wanted to learn German since his mother taught him to count in German at a young age. While a student at Ohio University, Imbrigotta served as a conversation partner in the Ohio Program of Intensive English (OPIE) and as a German language tutor. After completing his year as a Fulbright teaching assistant he plans to pursue a graduate degree in German, enabling him to teach German literature and linguistics at the university level. Imbrigotta spent a quarter studying in Salzburg, Austria last year and has interned in Steiningen, Germany.
Jennifer DeMuria won a Fulbright grant to study and catalog a species of tree violets in Indonesia. Through her work she hopes to help conserve these rare violets and contribute to future conservation of other rare species. DeMuria spent last summer studying in Indonesia through a scholarship from the United States Indonesian Society. She has continued her study of the Indonesian language at Ohio University as the recipient of a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship.
Dawn Rogier, a teaching assistant for the Ohio Program of Intensive English, will spend the next year in Romania teaching English at the university-level and providing educational advising to Romanian students who want to study abroad. She will also conduct research on curriculum design for English as a Foreign Language to examine how textbooks are being adapted for English as an international language. Rogier has served in the Peace Corps in both Zaire and Mali and has spent four years teaching English to children and adults in Nagoya, Japan. Upon completion of her Fulbright year, Rogier plans to return to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in education or applied linguistics so that she may continue working with international students in an academic environment.
Amy Thompson, a photographer whose work has been published in National Geographic and The New York Times, will spend her Fulbright year in Morocco. She will study the evolution of women's roles in society by creating documentary photographs. Thompson hopes to display her photographs in Morocco and in the United States to help educate people about the lives of Moroccan women and to help overcome stereotypes and misconceptions about Muslim women. Thompson lived in Morocco as a child and looks forward to the opportunity to return to the see the country through the eyes of an adult. She recently spent several months taking photographs in Angkor, Cambodia on a grant from the University's Southeast Asian Studies Program.
David Lee will not be accepting his Fulbright award to Korea since he has also been offered an internship at a major U.S. news magazine.
Ohio University's Fulbright Program Advisor Beth Clodfelter commends the Fulbright recipients. She said, "The success of these students in the prestigious Fulbright competition highlights the excellent education available at Ohio University. Their talent, motivation and hard work, greatly enhanced by the knowledge and support they have received from outstanding faculty members, have contributed to their success."
