ON AND OFF CAMPUS

GILMAN WINNERS GO FAR

Four Bard College students were awarded Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships by the US Department of State. Computer science and Asian studies joint major Asyl Almaz ’24, from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, used her $4,000 award to attend Waseda University in Tokyo for the fall 2022 semester. Philosophy major Azriel Almodóvar ’24, from Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, received $3,500, with which he attended Bard’s Italian Language Intensive program in Taormina, Italy, during summer 2022. Theater major Grant Venable ’24, from Sherman Oaks, California, spent fall 2022 at Bard College Berlin with the help of a $5,000 Gilman-DAAD scholarship. Music and Asian studies joint major Nandi Woodfork-Bey ’23, from Sacramento, California, was awarded $3,500, which she put toward study at the American College of Greece in fall 2022. The Gilman Program is sponsored by the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is supported in its implementation by the Institute of International Education.

Asyl Almaz ’24, photo by AnnAnn Puttithanasorn ’23

Azriel Almodóvar ’24 photo by AnnAnn Puttithanasorn ’23

Nandi Woodfork-Bey ’23, photo by Lamphone Souvannaphoungeun

Grant Venable ’24, photo by AnnAnn Puttithanasorn ’23

BEIJING BOUND

From a pool of nearly 3,000 applicants, three Bardians have been named Schwarzman Scholars. Each will have the opportunity to attend a one-year, fully funded master’s program in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Evan Tims ’19 grew up in coastal Maine, where he developed an early interest in the relationship between narrative, social justice, and environmental change. He earned a joint BA in human rights and written arts, received the Bard Written Arts Prize and the Christopher Wise ’92 Award in Environmental Studies and Human Rights for his Senior Project, and is founder and director of the In 100 Years Project, an organization focused on building environmental dialogue through creative workshops. Tims is particularly focused on the social challenges of water in the 21st century. As a 2021–22 Henry J. Luce Scholar, he lived in Nepal and conducted research in the hydropower sector while leading climate engagement projects. Edris Tajik ’23 came to Bard from Afghanistan and is completing his Senior Project in politics. Tajik has trained 240 students in Model United Nations and 120 students on peace-building initiatives as well as implemented six community-based projects. He is a Generation Change fellow at the United States Institute of Peace and is interning with the National Committee on American Foreign Policy. He intends to pursue a career in international relations. Michael Nyakundi ’23, a student at Bard College Berlin, is a Kenyan national studying economics, politics, and social thought who is interested in criminal justice reform through public policy and law. He previously interned at State House Kenya analyzing the impact of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big 4 agenda, and has volunteered with the Kenya Red Cross and Plan International on youth-police arbitration projects. Recently, Nyakundi led a team of more than 500 to address police brutality in the Soweto slums of Nairobi.

PROJECTING CHANGE

Two student-led initiatives shared the Margarita Kuchma Project Award Half of the $10,000 prize went to the team of Anna Schupack ’22 and Sarah Soucek ’22 for the Columbia Collective, a multimedia arts mentorship project designed to give incarcerated artists the opportunity to define their own voices. The other $5,000 went to Michael Nyakundi ’23 and Abdullah Naseer ’23 from Bard College Berlin for Project MA3: Masanse Na Mayouthman (From Violence to Co-existence), which focuses on community engagement as a working solution to police brutality in Soweto slums in Embakasi, Nairobi. Organized by Bard’s Human Rights Project, the award was created in honor of Margarita Kuchma, who was a graduate of Smolny College, a Program in International Education student at Bard, and a member of the first cohort of the Center for Human Rights and the Arts’ MA in Human Rights and the Arts Program. Kuchma was a talented artist and activist with a passionate commitment to making real change in the world, and the prize in her name was conceived as a living memorial to encourage Bard students and recent graduates to emulate her commitment to political and social engagement.