Students Receive Study-Abroad Scholarships

Fifty UW-Madison students were awarded prestigious study-abroad scholarships this spring. The awards, ranging from $500 to $4,000 and totaling nearly $80,000, were made possible in large part through gifts such as the Study Abroad Alumni Awards and the generous contributions of committed UW-Madison alumni and friends.

The students were honored at a study abroad scholarship awards ceremony, April 24 in the Memorial Union.

Students also received Chou Kuo-Ping awards, named after the UW-Madison faculty member who taught Chinese language courses on campus in the mid-1960s and who arranged for her students to study in Taiwan. The scholarships, made possible by one of those students, Tom Sternberg, now an insurance executive in White Plains, New York, go toward study in China (including Hong Kong) or Taiwan.

Other students were given Pritzker Pucker Awards for year-long study in one of the UW-Madison’s overseas programs outside of western Europe. Gigi Pritzker Pucker, an alumna of the UW-Madison’s Nepal program, this year made an additional $100,000 gift on behalf of the Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation. “The UW-Madison Nepal program changed my life in so many ways,” Ms. Pritzker Pucker said. “The impact has been lifelong and I am so pleased to be able to help other students have this experience.”

Other study-abroad scholarships were awarded through the Chicago Chapter of the Wisconsin Alumni Association; the Joe Elder Awards, named in honor of the UW-Madison professor who has led the College Year in India program virtually since its inception in 1961; Cyril W. Nave Fund for Latin American Research; the Laurent Karim Makward Memorial Scholarship, named after the son of UW-Madison emeritus professor Edris Makward and Christiane P. Makward, Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Penn State University; and the Julie and Michael Gerend Study Abroad Fund.

Video Presentations from the awards ceremony:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG6w1IVwOKc]

Christie Emberley, an International Studies major, spent the 2005-2006 academic year in Varanasi doing a fieldwork project focusing on identity and nationality in Tibetan refugee populations. She received Pritzker Pucker and Joe Elder scholarships.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4VYAi9yNOA]

Andrew Guinn is a member of the 2007 graduating class. He is also a graduate of the first class of Wisconsin International Scholars, a program for exceptional students with strong international interests. He studied abroad in Argentina on a Pritzker Pucker Scholarship in 2005-06.

For more on the students and the awards, made possible by alumni, friends, faculty and staff, click here.