Five students receive Fulbright Scholarships

CONTACT: Ellen Chang
PHONE:
(713) 348-6777
EMAIL: ellenc@rice.edu

FIVE STUDENTS
RECEIVE FULBRIGHT SCHOLARHIPS

Five Rice University
students received Fulbright scholarships this year, including two students who
are roommates at Hanszen College.

While the odds may have
been slim, it was not entirely surprising that Joseph Blocher and Michael Sew
Hoy, close friends since their first day at Rice, would both be chosen as
Fulbright scholars.

“I’m pretty excited for
both of us,” said Sew Hoy, who graduated with degrees in political science and
biology. “I think it’s kind of funny that both of us received it.”

Three other students
from Rice also were chosen, including Gwen Hoben, Steven Benham and Jae Chung.
Hoben, who also lived at Hanszen, will be studying tissue engineering at the
University of Freiburg in Germany. Benham, who received degrees in German and
political science, will be a teaching assistant at the Gymnasium Georgius
Agricola in Chemnitz, Germany, and graduated with degrees in German and
political science. Chung, a graduate student in anthropology, will be a visiting
fellow studying cultural anthropology at Seoul National University in South
Korea.

The Fulbright
scholarship pays for a year of study abroad for outstanding students who can
cross national and cultural boundaries to improve international
relations.

Both Blocher and Sew Hoy
are taking the next year off to conduct their studies. Blocher, who graduated
with a degree in history, is headed off to the University of Ghana in Africa to
study customary and English law. Sew Hoy is spending the next year at the
National University of Singapore studying biotech policy.

The two friends both are
interested in tackling new topics and learning in different continents before
heading off for three years of law school. Blocher will be studying at Yale
University and Sew Hoy at the University of Virginia.

“I’m really looking at
it as an adventure,” Blocher said. “It’s a chance to go to a brand new continent
and to get off the undergraduate track to law school for a year.”

Sew Hoy, who was raised
in Santa Monica, Calif., said he is looking forward to studying abroad, an
opportunity he missed because of his double majors.

“I’ve always wanted to
experience that in a non-tourist environment,” he said. “I’m really excited
about the opportunity. I owed it to myself to do it.”

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