The UW India Initiative is pleased to announce three awards meant to establish or expand internship and study abroad opportunities for UW students in the future.
UW junior Alison Scharman will spend the 2010 summer studying in Pune, India, which boasts a number of universities and research centers and a thriving student culture. She will explore internship opportunities working with development organizations, especially those dealing with women’s and children’s issues. She is hoping to use her internship experience as a guide to her future career.
PhD student Ayça Zayim brings with her a strong background in sociology and economics, having conducted fieldwork on slum communities in Turkey. During the 2010 summer internship, she will work with SPARC (the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres) in Mumbai, the largest NGO operating in India focusing on the living conditions of the urban poor. She hopes to use the internship opportunity with SPARC to link her work in India with her previous experience working with urban poor in other countries.
The India Initiative has also awarded an Internship Exploration Grant for UW-Madison Faculty to Mary Rader – South Asia Bibliographer and Head of Memorial Library Collection and Liaison Services. With funding from the India Initiative, Mary plans to travel to Mumbai to explore two related internship/study abroad possibilities, both in the fields of information management. At the K.R. Cama Oriental Institute, the foremost archive and library related to Zoroastrianism worldwide, she will explore possible internships or study abroad opportunities in archival and library documentation and preservation. At SPARROW (Sound and Picture Archives for Research on Women), an organization which seeks to preserve and document the contemporary representations and interpretations of Indian women through popular and visual cultures, Mary will explore possible opportunities for students to intern or study projects in archival practice, oral history practice, and community outreach.