CAMPUS CURRENT
Scholarships Support International Understanding STUDENTS TRAVEL TO RUSSIA AND BOTSWANA
David Lingenbrink ’14 was awarded a $9,000 scholarship from the American Mathematical Society to study mathematics at the Independent University of Moscow. The math major is the fi rst Mudder to receive the prestigious scholarship to attend the Russian university’s semester-long Math in Moscow program. “I am very excited to learn mathematics from what I hear
to be an entirely different school of thought,” said Lingenbrink before his trip this spring. “In addition, the thought of traveling to a country that was off limits only 20 years ago is pretty cool.” A small, elite institution focused primarily on mathematics,
IUM was founded in 1991 by a group of well-known Russian research mathematicians, who now comprise the university’s academic council. Its Math in Moscow program was created in 2001 to provide foreign students (primarily from the United States, Canada and Europe) with a program in the Russian tradition, which emphasizes problem solving rather than mem- orizing theorems. The program’s instructors are internationally recognized research mathematicians, and all instruction is in English. Lingenbrink lived in a student hostel in Moscow and traveled by train to the university. His academic schedule consisted of three courses—Basic Representation Theory, Algebraic Geometry and Algebraic Number Theory—plus a class in Russian to supplement what he’s already gleaned from his Russian 1 course. He also was able to explore Moscow and the surrounding area.
“To fully understand the impact of my work…” Eva Gao ’14 received a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to study abroad this spring in Botswana. The $3,000 award helped defray the costs associated with
Gao’s participation in the Pitzer Botswana Study Abroad Program, which offers a cross-cultural learning experience organized around language training, fi eld projects and a core course on Botswana and regional development. “To fully understand the impact of my work,
I need to understand how people from different cultures interact with disease and medicine,” said Gao, a joint chemistry and biology major who hopes to pursue a medical career. “Medi- cal research is not just about science. There are many social, political and economic consider- ations that come into play.” While in Botswana, Gao had the opportunity to stay with three host families, each represent-
ing a different region and socioeconomic class—village, small town and city. In January and February, she lived with a family in the rural
village of Manyana. Then she spent a month with a host fam- ily in Lobatse, Botswana’s fi rst established town. She spent the remainder of the semester in the capital city of Gaborone. “I really enjoy this aspect of the program,” she said. “To
really understand a culture, you need to understand what ev- eryday life is like. My host family in Manyana taught me how to cook Setswana food, how to wash my clothes by hand and how to speak the Setswana language. I was also able to observe gender roles in Setswana society and the role of religion in dif- ferent families.” In addition to learning Setswana, Gao took a course about
Botswana’s history and socio-cultural issues. For her indepen- dent study project, she plans to pursue research on the social aspects of HIV/AIDS. Her inspiration sprang from taking the course, HIV/AIDS: Science, Society and Service, taught by chemistry and biology Professor Karl Haushalter. Gao hopes to connect what she learned in the classroom with the reality of the AIDS epidemic in Botswana. In particular, she aims to learn more about the country’s health care system, the impact of HIV/AIDS on its citizens and current research underway there. In Lobatse, she interned with Botswana-Harvard AIDS
Institute Partnership, a collaborative research and training program between the Botswana government and the Harvard AIDS Initiative. The work included a project focused on how to improve the health of infants who have HIV-positive moth- ers but are not HIV-positive themselves.
Student News
David Lingenbrink ’14 studied at Independent University of Moscow. Eva Gao ’14 is shown with the family who hosted her in the village of Manyana, Botswana.
SPRING 2013 Har vey Mudd College 13
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