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 |  | 2008-09 Summary
Total Fellowships: 75 Eligible Applicants: 1,050 Countries Represented by Applicants: 122 Total Awards: $1,486,000 |  |  | |
| 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 3,000 women representing 135 countries.
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 2008-2009 International Fellows strive to make a difference in the world through diverse fields. They are working on biosensors for the early detection and treatment of breast cancer, the role of civil society in the development of sustainable environmental policies, gender and HIV/AIDS in Iran, social enterprise administration, and aquifer storage and recovery, among other projects.
The AAUW Educational Foundation would like to thank the following 2008-09 International Fellowship panelists: Karen H. Bonnell (IN), chair, communication and journalism; Jinx Campbell (MS), molecular and marine biology; Marcia Feuerstein (VA), architecture; Yolanda Gayol (DC), education; Helena (Huiqing) Jin (CA), engineering; CJ Kalin (CA), business and systems management; and Sona Pancholy (MD), law. Guest panelists include: Barbara Beliveau (MD), economics; Christine B. N. Chin (DC), political science and political economy; Ann P. Conrad (DC), social work; Laura Demaria (MD), foreign language and literature; Nicole LaRonde-LeBlanc (MD), biochemistry and chemistry; Loretta Lynch (MD), agricultural and resource economics; Lisa T. Moon (DC), psychology; Sarah Orndorff (DC), public health; Natalia Petrashevskaya (MD), health sciences and medicine; Meredith Rode (DC), art and art history; Karen. E. Rosenblum (VA), sociology; and Susan Shepler (DC), anthropology.
