Vanderbilt alumnus, student awarded Fulbright Fellowships

A recent Vanderbilt graduate and a current student have been awarded Fulbright Fellowships, the government's premier scholarship program for overseas studies.

Pettus

Mark Pettus, a 2000 graduate with a B.A. from Vanderbilt, will study in Russia, and Rhonda Collier, a graduate student in comparative literature, will study in Brazil.

"National competition for these fellowships is extremely sharp and Vanderbilt is fortunate to have two representatives among the award recipients," said Joel Harrington, associate professor of history, director of the Center for European Studies and Fulbright Program adviser.

The Fulbright Program was created by an act of Congress after World War II, in order to foster mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchanges. Today it enables more than 800 American students, artists and other professionals to study and conduct research in more than 100 countries. Recent B.S or B.A. graduates or graduate students design their own projects and courses of study, which may include university coursework, independent library or field research, classes in music conservatory or art school, special projects in the life sciences, or a combination of the above.

A native of Franklin, Tenn., Pettus' undergraduate majors were history and German, and he participated in Vanderbilt's study abroad program in Regensburg, Germany. He plans to study Russian language and literature at St. Petersburg State University, with special focus on the theme of political dissent in the lives and writings of Dostoyevsky and Solzhenitsyn.

Collier

Collier is a native of Talladega, Ala., and a 1991 graduate of the University of Tennessee. After working six years as a health systems specialist for General Electric, she returned to pursue a doctorate in comparative literature at Vanderbilt. A fluent speaker of Portuguese, she will be based at the Universidade de São Paulo, conducting a comparative analysis of Afro-Brazilian women's poetry.

The competition for the 2001-02 Fulbright Fellowship is now open. Interested Vanderbilt undergraduates and graduate students should contact Joel Harrington at 322-2527 for more information. The deadline is Oct. 6.