 |
 |  | 2007-08 Summary
Total fellowships = 66
Eligible applicants = 957
Countries represented = 119
Total awards = $1,296,000
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| International Fellowships are awarded for full-time study or research to women who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Fellowships support graduate or postgraduate studies at accredited institutions. Recipients are selected for academic achievement and demonstrated commitment to women and girls. The overwhelming majority return to their home countries to become leaders in their fields as heads of state, university professors, community activists, world-renowned artists, and scientists. |  | |
SEARCH FOR RECIPIENTS
Originally designed to provide Latin American women with opportunities for graduate and postgraduate study in the United States, the International Fellowships program awarded its first fellowship in 1917 to Virginia Alvarez-Hussey, who studied medicine at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania and then returned to Venezuela, where she became a specialist in the treatment of leprosy.
The AAUW Educational Foundation expanded the International Fellowships program in 1945 to provide higher education opportunities to European women from countries devastated by Nazi domination during World War II. The program now includes women from around the world, and International Fellowships have been awarded to over 2,600 women representing 135 countries.
To increase support for International Fellows, the program introduced Home-Country Project Grants in 1999-2000. These one-year supplemental grants provide additional funding for fellowship recipients to return to their home countries to implement projects benefiting women and girls.
International Fellows include Marina Nunez del Prado (1940), who became one of Bolivia's premiere artists. Her most famous work, Mother and Child, is part of the permanent collection at the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.
The 2007-08 International Fellows strive to make a difference in the world, though diverse fields. They are working on promoting the increased participation of women in public administration and governance in Nigeria, equity in international trade and investment, integrating environmental issues into rural development and poverty reduction in Mongolia, and examining how nutrition plays a role in influencing the cytotoxicity of a cancer drug, among other projects.
The AAUW Educational Foundation thanks the following 2007-08 International Fellowship panelists: Karen H. Bonnell (IN), chair, communication and journalism; Frederick Ahearn (DC), social work; R. Victoria Arana (DC), literature; Elisa Barney Smith (ID), engineering; Sujeeta Bhatt (DC), neurosciences and life sciences; Marcia Feuerstein (VA), architecture; Yolanda Gayol (DC), education; Helena (Huiquing) Jin (CA), engineering; CJ Kalin (CA), business and systems management; Rebecca A. Malouin (MI), health sciences; and Mindy Nancarrow (AL), art history and performance art. Guest panelists include Elsa Barkley Brown (MD), history; Barbara Beliveau (MD), economics; Laura B. Cattaneo (VA), psychology; Karen Crawford (MD), biology; Marion Doro (CT), political science; Iris C. Ford (MD), anthropology; Brenda P. Fuller (MD), law; S. Suzan J. Harkness (DC), political science; Nicole LaRonde-LeBlanc (MD), biochemistry and chemistry; Loretta Lynch (MD), agricultural and resource economics; Esther Wangari (MD), sociology; and Amita Vyas (DC), health sciences.
