Three former Baker Institute interns are among the seven Rice University students and one recent graduate who received Fulbright scholarships for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Michael Feldman
The highly selective program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, offers students and scholars the opportunity to study and conduct research abroad to help find solutions to shared international concerns.
Fulbright recipient Michael Feldman, a senior majoring in political science and Asian studies, will travel to Kuala Lumpur to study the political and economic effects of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement at the training and research arm of the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Amanda Hu
Amanda Hu will go to Botswana to conduct an anthropological study of orphans that could be used by local organizations, such as an HIV/AIDS center, to effect long-term change. She is a senior majoring in psychology.
Patrick McAnaney, a senior majoring in history and policy studies, will study the organizational structure and operations of waste-picker cooperatives and associations in Brazil to help advance the development of the recycling movement in that country.
Patrick McAnaney
Feldman and McAnaney participated in the institute’s Jesse Jones Leadership Center Summer in D.C. Policy Research Internship Program in 2008. McAnaney evaluated the effectiveness of local recycling initiatives in Latin American nations for the Inter-American Foundation, while Feldman researched relations between Europe, East Asia and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Future Security Strategies. Hu, a two-year intern for the Baker Institute Energy Forum’s Lesotho Sustainability Assessment Project, led efforts in 2009 to weatherize an abandoned school in Sub-Saharan Africa by installing a new roof, windows and insulation.
Jasmine Bright, Michael Contreras, Esei Murakishi, Kendall Toarmina and Matthew Wesley were also selected as Fulbright scholars from Rice University.