Ethics Center announces 2010 Sorensen Fellows

The 2010 Sorensen Fellows (l-r): Tess Raser, Madeleine Stix, Kelsey Grab, Matthew Kupfer, Kayla Dinces, Christopher Lau

A new group of Brandeis undergraduates will get the chance to change the world this summer. Kayla Dinces ’12, Kelsey Grab ’12, Matthew Kupfer ’12, Christopher Lau ’12, Tess Raser ’12, and Madeline Stix ’12, have been selected as 2010 Sorensen Fellows.
 
The fellowship program, sponsored by the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life, awards fellows a $4000 stipend to cover travel and living expenses for a summer internship anywhere outside of the United States, or $3500 for one inside the U.S., that’s focused on important international issues like coexistence, human rights, international law, global health, hunger relief, or gender equity. Students take a course related to their internship in the spring semester as academic preparation before the trip, and after returning to campus, they take a course together to put the internship experience in perspective.
 
The program is named for Theodore C. "Ted" Sorensen, who served as policy advisor, legal counsel, and speechwriter to President John F. Kennedy. Sorensen was also the founding chair of the center’s International Advisory Board, on which he still serves.
 
"This year's Sorensen Fellows are creative and engaged students, who will represent the spirit of Louis Brandeis and Ted Sorensen as they combine active work for social justice with rigorous inquiry into the nature of social change," said Vice President of Global Affairs and center Director, Daniel Terris.
 
The 2010 Sorensen Fellows represent a wide array of academic interests:

• Kayla Dinces '12 is majoring in Theater Arts with minors in Peace, Conflict and Coexistence Studies, and Religious Studies. She will intern with the Experimental Theatre Foundation in Mumbai, India, training in their unique method of “Theater of Relevance,” and implementing it in the creation of a theater piece with a group of school children from poor communities in Mumbai.
• Kelsey Grab '12 is majoring in Sociology and Women and Gender Studies and minoring in Peace and Coexistence Studies. She will be teaching English in the Bapagrama School in Bangalore, India, which educates students of the Dalit population ages 13-19. She will be exploring India’s educational system and challenging her own ideas of what it takes to educate a student.
• Matthew Kupfer '12 is a double major in International & Global Studies and Anthropology. He will intern in Osh, Kyrgyzstan with Info-Centre Rainbow, helping to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and find international funding for programs to serve 200 children who contracted HIV in the hospitals of Southern Kyrgyzstan.
• Christopher Lau ’12 is double majoring in Economics and Politics, with a minor in East Asian Studies. He will intern with WorldTeach in Ecuador, teaching English and engaging in various developmental projects in a rural community.
• Tess Raser '12 is majoring in International and Global Studies and minoring in Women and Gender Studies. She will be working with a women’s advocacy organization in Moshi, Tanzania, that distributes micro-loans to women to start their own businesses.
• Madeleine Stix '12 is majoring in International & Global Studies and minoring in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (IMES) and Hispanic Studies. She will be interning at the Spirit of Youth Association for Environmental Service in Cairo, Egypt, working with the Zaballeen, a Coptic Christian recycling community on the outskirts of Cairo, teaching English and computer programs at The Recycling School.

Sorensen applicants must be Brandeis sophomores or juniors. Students from any major are eligible. The 2011 application will be available this summer. To get a preview of what the 2011 application may look like, you can view the 2010 application here.
 
Contact ethics@brandeis.edu with any questions.