Through the generosity of two donors, the Toor Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts (CISLA) is able to offer competitive student travel grants for center students to continue work on their senior integrative project (SIP) by attending a conference or workshop, returning to the site of the internship to continue research or conduct interviews or by traveling to a site where primary materials are available. This unique opportunity gives students the chance to gather additional information that greatly helps to make the SIP an outstanding piece of academic research.

In 2017-2018, we awarded nine such grants.

Grace Berman returned to Argentina to continue research for her SIP, “Anti-Agrochemical Movements in Argentina.” She conducted research on grassroot movements against agro-chemical use in Argentina by interviewing activists and local experts.

Dominique D’Onofrio received funding to go to Rome, Italy, to return to her internship where she was asked to write an article for MiBACT and to continue her research on the prevalence of antiquities trafficking in Italy.

Megan Fahey was awarded a mini grant to take a training course in New London on medical translation. Megan completed her internship in Valencia, Spain, at the Valencian Institute of Sports Recovery and Levante, UD. This course helped her write a more comprehensive SIP and gave her added credentials for her future plans as an physician.

Aidan Gorrell returned to the place of his summer internship in Lubeck, Germany. Since his project looked at how music enhanced language learning, he wanted to see how his students, all of whom were refugees, had progressed in their learning of German.   

Lizzie Lewis received a travel grant to return to Chile where she continued her research on her SIP, “Denial of the Right to Choose and the Subsequent Violence against Women.” She was able to conduct interviews that she had not been able to do previously with both non-indigenous rural women as well as indigenous Mapuche women.

Marta Martinez Fernandez returned to Paris to conduct further interviews with NGOs related to her project, “NGOs’ Impact on Security Policy in France.”  During the summer she only had the time to meet with a small percentage of the NGOs that she wanted to interview. With this added opportunity, she was able to meet with more NGOs to gather substantial additional information for her SIP.

Gabrielle Schlein was given the CISLA travel grant to attend an intensive training program with Pig Iron Theater Company.  This training would help her integrate the physical training she had in Senegal with her capstone SIP.

Kevin Thai went to Hong Kong to attend Hong Kong Fashion Week.  He was able to gather important information to continue his research on his SIP, “The Growth of Middle Class Luxury Consumption and its Effect on the Economy in China.”

Yoldas Yildiz received funds to attend a conference in Las Vegas on the topic of Global Virology. This would complement the work he had already done for his SIP on the topic of “Analyzing Protein Kinases to Improve our Understanding of Developmental Diseases.”