Summer Travel Scholarships

Summer Travel Scholarships

Goliard Travel Scholarship

The recipient of the 2000 Goliard Travel Scholarship, Blair Christian ’00 will be traveling to the Far East and the Bordeaux region of France to examine the cultural roles of cooking and food.

In a trip that will take him from the kitchens of classically trained chefs to those of local townsfolk, he expects to get a unique perspective of Japanese and French cuisine. He looks forward to learning how to prepare regional cuisine as well as collecting samples of various fermented food products, which he will examine later for their antibiotic properties.

Christian will begin the summer in Fukuoka, Japan, studying the intricacies of Japanese food preparation and presentation under the tutelage of a Japanese chef, followed by homestays with local families.

"I am very interested in seeing how differently the Japanese value their cuisine in comparison with Americans and to see how accurate my perceptions are," Christian said.

A trek across North Central Asia on the Trans-Siberian Railway will bridge him to France, where he hopes to get "insight into what many consider the basis of modern Western cooking."

Christian will spend a month studying classic French cuisine as a sous-chef followed by a couple weeks of homestays to experience "cooking with Frenchmen in their own kitchens."

"I plan to start a restaurant at some point in the future, and this trip will give me a valuable opportunity to expand the diversity of my cooking," Christian said.

The Goliard Travel Scholarship was founded in 1986 to help fund the travels of Rice students who have a desire to expand their horizons and challenge their worldviews.

Brotzen Travel Scholarship

Sid Richardson College junior Michael Kross is intrigued by the rich architectural history of Brazil and its evolution from a country influenced heavily by European stylings to one boasting its own unique architectural style.

This summer, as recipient of the 2000 Franz and Frances Brotzen Travel Award, Kross will have the opportunity to study, sketch and photograph the architecture of some of Brazil’s largest and oldest cities.

Traveling to Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and Sao Paulo, Kross will visit architectural masterpieces, evaluate how the cities have grown and developed over the years, study Brazilian free-form modernism, learn South American construction techniques and evaluate climactic conditions that influence design.

In his travels, Kross expects to experience the tremendous architectural and societal diversity of the country, from colonial architecture to modernism, extreme elitism to crushing poverty, urban metropolises to rural villages.

"As an architecture student, this trip will have an ever-lasting impact on the ways I approach design," Kross said. "One of my personal agendas in architecture is the search for beauty through form, and there is no other place in the world in which architecture attempts such a lofty aesthetic."

National Security Education Program

Fueled by a fascination with Chinese culture, politics and language and in preparation for a career in international law, Michael Erfe ’00, recipient of the 2000 National Security Education Program (NSEP) scholarship, will spend the summer in China immersed in study.

Erfe will stay in Kunming, the capital of the Yunnan Province, where he will participate in an intensive Mandarin language program and a life and culture seminar in which he will study Chinese history and politics, geography and economics, arts and humanities and cultural anthropology.

Erfe also will take study tours to various towns "to observe and participate in the local customs and lifestyles."

Erfe said he is drawn to study in China not only because of its interesting culture and its similarities and differences to American culture, but also because of the changing social and political climate.

"Separate from these academic interests is a more pragmatic desire to continue perfecting my reading, writing and speaking skills in Mandarin," Erfe said. "I have studied Mandarin for two and a half years in college, and I have spent a semester in Beijing, yet I still have much to learn."

The NSEP was created by President Bush in 1991 to encourage U.S. citizens to learn less commonly taught languages and cultures, cultivate international relationships among future leaders in both government service and higher education and enhance international cooperation and security.