Fourteen Georgetown graduates have been awarded fellowships from the [Fulbright Program](https://exchanges.state.gov/academicexchanges/index/fulbright-program.html) for the 2009-2010 academic year. Fulbright scholars conduct independent scholarly research while living in foreign countries.
Established in 1946 and sponsored by the [State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs](https://exchanges.state.gov/), the J. William Fulbright Program strives to create mutual understanding between the United States and the world at large through educational opportunities. It operates in 144 countries worldwide; Africa, Europe, the Middle East, South America and the Indian subcontinent are among the destinations of this year’s recipients.
Rod Solaimani (SFS ’08), a recipient of the Fulbright fellowship created by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and MTV, has traveled to Morocco to study ethnomusicology and the need for cross-cultural dialogue. He will remain in Morocco, traveling between cities, until June of next year.
“Our hobbies become passions,” Solaimani said. “I think I chose this country and music scene because of how the fusions have truly complemented each other without one completely supplanting the other.”
Solaimani linked his interest in music to the importance of interaction among the United States and other countries. “In the words of Richard Holbrooke, who was once Peace Corps director in Morocco, jazz and diplomacy are based on the same principle, improvisation on a theme,” Solaimani said. “So here I am trying my hand at both.”
Another beneficiary of the Fulbright grant, Laura Tulchin (COL ’09), will be conducting research on the effect of racial quotas in admissions to Brazilian universities in Rio de Janeiro, where she will arrive next February.
In addition to the Latin American history courses and Portuguese classes she took at Georgetown that sparked her curiosity in racial quotas, she had been interested in the study of educational opportunities since high school.
“. I’ve been really interested in affirmative action and equal educational opportunities that stemmed from a constitutional law class I took senior year of high school,” Tulchin said.
She has traveled to Argentina and Brazil before and wrote her government major research paper on related issues.
“So, as you can see, my interests have led me repeatedly to this intersection between race, opportunity and education,” Tulchin said.
Walter Chahanovich (COL ’09) has moved to Oman, where he has begun translating Omani short stories and recording Omani heritage tales after studying Arabic literature in Egypt last year with a Boren Scholarship.
“The macro-picture of what I will be doing for the rest of my life is trying to conquer the Arabic language,” Chahanovich said. “. I believe literature in [a] sense is one of the best measurements of a society in its everyday: the fears, the hopes, the dreams, the struggles.”
Other research topics Georgetown alumni will be following include the role of women in the rebel armies of Sierra Leone, Chinese environmental regulations, modern word derivation in Syria and the impact of climate change on Peruvian children, according to a university press release.
The 2009-2010 Georgetown Fulbright Scholars are Lindsay Aylesworth (SFS ’06), Priya Bapat (SFS ’06), Carolyn Barnett (SFS ’09), Walter Chahanovich (COL ’09), Anthony Edwards (COL ’08, GRD ’09), Perry Guevara (GRD ’09), Sabrina Karim (SFS ’07), Niloufar Khonsari (SFS ’06, LAW ’09), Zoe Marks (COL ’07), Mary O’Loughlin (SFS ’09), former chair of THE HOYA’s board of directors Alex Schank (COL ’08), Rod Solaimani (SFS ’08), Kimberly Stolz (GRD ’07) and Laura Tulchin (COL ’09).
Every year, a number of Georgetown students apply for the scholarship, along with 7,000 candidates nationwide. [Last year, there were 18 winners from Georgetown](https://www.thehoya.com/news/news-in-brief-98/).
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