Summer 2012 Venture Grant Winners

Kelsi Brooks will investigate the stigma of HIV and AIDS in Jamaica at the Center for HIV/AIDS Research Education and Services in Kingston.

Yoon Joo Cho will study the relationship between nongovernmental organizations and the government in Mozambique.

Alyssa Gratkowski will complete a special events internship at the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh

Camilla Jackson will attend a conflict transformation and peacebuilding program at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont

Christopher Koch will work with the “Missionaries of the Poor” in Kingston, Jamaica to extend healthcare to underserved communities.

Ethan Ley will act as support crew for a 200-mile run on the Appalachian Trail, documenting the trip on film as he does so.

Janelle Perez will observe immigrant students’ assimilation of language and culture in elementary school classrooms in Toulon, France.

Katherine Ptaszek will research and write about the changing ethnic identities of a Chicago neighborhood between 1880 and 1930.

Krista Robbins will investigate the cross-cultural understanding of the Japanese ritual practice of mizuko kuyo through visits to Buddhist temples in Japan and the U.S.

Lora Rowan will participate in shark conservation efforts in Brazil in order to study how such efforts are shaped or inhibited by different cultural perspectives.

Amelia Tarpey will gain certification as a doula and undertake an internship with the Bhakti House in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Leo Brochu and Grace Smith will interview musicians and document and catalogue performances of experimental music in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Summer 2011 Venture Grant Winners

Tamir Abdel-Wahab investigated the overlapping identities of ethnic minorities in the city of Kunming in Yunnan, China with Kun Zhang

Sasha Debevec-McKenney visited and wrote about the presidential museums, birthplaces, and homes of six lesser-known nineteenth-century presidents of the United States.

Nofiya Denbaum facilitated an intercultural exchange between elementary school students in Beloit and Brazil while studying Portuguese in Rio de Janeiro.

Emily Johnson organized a summer camp program focused on experiential learning through art for children of immigrant families through the non-profit organization Mary House, in Washington, DC.

Michelle Koenig and Ashley Miglin worked on an environmental conservation project in Chitwan, Nepal through the non-profit organization FACE Nepal.