Cindy Johnson-Groh

Cindy Johnson-Groh, professor of biology and environmental studies as well as executive director of the Linnaeus Arboretum at Gustavus Adolphus College, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture and conduct research in Tanzania during the 2009-10 academic year.

“Tanzania has been in my heart,” said Johnson-Groh. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to do a project that I feel strongly about.”

Johnson-Groh will teach courses on subjects such as conservation biology, plant systematics, organismal biology, and plant ecology. In addition to her teaching duties, Johnson-Groh will conduct research for a book on the natural history and conservation biology of Tanzania. She intends the book to serve as a textbook for short-term travel courses, as an introduction for longer courses, and as a helpful handbook for tourists and guides in the ecotourism and safari industry.

“Much of what is known about Tanzanian natural history is not published in a form accessible to students or tourists,” Johnson-Groh said. “So I hope that by synthesizing existing literature, interviewing Tanzanian biologists, and acquiring photographs that I will be able to give readers a background on the natural history and conservation biology of Northern Tanzania and enable them to understand how the various components of the ecosystem interact to create this amazing place.”

Tanzania is the 27th largest country in the world at just under 365,000 square miles. The population of Tanzania is around 40 million people. The geography and environment of northern Tanzania provides an ideal ecosystem for a conservation biologist like Johnson-Groh.

Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak, is situated in the northeast part of the country. Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake, sits on the northwest border of Tanzania. The Serengeti Plains, also located in northern Tanzania, hosts approximately 70 large mammals and some 500 avifauna species, as well as the largest and longest overland migration of wildebeests in the world.

Johnson-Groh has taken seven different Gustavus classes to Tanzania during the College’s January Interim Experience term. She was the recipient of the 2003 Edgar M. Carlson Award for Distinguished Teaching — the highest teaching award presented by the College. She is also a past recipient of the Swenson-Bunn Award for Teaching, chosen annually by Gustavus students.

Johnson-Groh is one of approximately 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad though the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Since its establishment in 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided approximately 286,500 people with the opportunity to observe each others’ political, economic, educational, and cultural institutions, to exchange ideas and to embark on joint ventures of importance to the general welfare of the world’s inhabitants. The Program operates in over 155 countries worldwide.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

Professor of English Greg Mason is retiring from Gustavus at the end of this year.

Gustavus Adolphus College professor of English, Dr. Greg Mason, has been accepted into the United States Fulbright Scholar Program for the 2008-09 academic year. Mason plans to teach American Literature and Culture in Montenegro during the spring semester next year.

“The opportunity to teach in Montenegro promises to be very enriching for me both personally and professionally,” Mason said. “I look forward to being immersed in an environment and in cultural practices and traditions that are quite unfamiliar to me.”

Mason has taught at Gustavus since 1971 and is the founder of the College’s curricular peace studies program, for which he served as director from 1985-2002. During that time, Mason also served as chair of the College’s annual MAYDAY! Peace Conference. He also served two terms as chair of the College’s English department from 1979-82 and again from 1982-85. Mason is retiring from Gustavus at the end of this year.

The Fulbright Scholar Program sends 800 United States faculty and professionals abroad each year to lecture and conduct research in a wide variety of academic and professional fields. The program is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

Gustavus senior Allison Ryan is the fifth Gustavus student to receive a Fulbright Scholarship since 1996.

Gustavus Adolphus College senior Allison (Addie) Ryan has been granted a Fulbright Scholarship for the 2008-09 academic year. Ryan, a native of St. Paul, Minn., will take classes and research the effects of microfinance projects directed at women in Morocco. Ryan is the 12th Gustavus student since 1991 to be named a Fulbright scholar.

“I’m pretty much stunned,” Ryan said. “I figured this was a long shot so I feel really blessed to have this once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Microfinancing is the idea of providing banking and other financial services to the poor as a tool to reduce poverty. The movement has experienced increased popularity thanks in part to Muhammad Yunus — a 2006 Nobel Prize winner and founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Ryan says that Yunus’ model inspired her and gave her the idea for her research.

Ryan graduated from Gustavus this winter with a 3.9 grade point average. She majored in French and international management and also minored in peace studies. She became interested in Morocco through her Gustavus Economic Development and World Resources course taught by Henry Hays. Her interest peaked when she took a trip to Morocco while studying abroad in France during the Spring Semester of her junior year. During her upcoming stay in Morocco, Ryan will learn Arabic and take courses at Dhar el Mehraz University in Fez.

Ryan credits both Hays and her French adviser Laurent Dechery for helping her with the Fulbright application process. Dechery is also the Fulbright adviser at Gustavus.

“Laurent helped me get an early start on the application process last summer and Henry helped me a lot with the topic of my research,” Ryan said. “Without help from both of them this wouldn’t have been possible.”

Established in 1946, the Fulbright program aims to increase mutual understanding between people of the United States and other countries, through the exchange of people, knowledge, and skills. The program sends approximately 1,100 American scholars and professionals per year to more than 130 countries, where they lecture and conduct research in a variety of academic and professional fields.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

Gustavus Senior Erica Duin

Gustavus Adolphus College senior Erica Duin has been granted a Fulbright Scholarship for the 2007-08 academic year. Duin, a native of Hastings, Minn., will take classes at Al Akhawayn University and conduct research on water resource management in the Sebou River Basin in Morocco. She is the fourth Gustavus student since 1996 to be named a Fulbright scholar.

Duin – who will graduate this spring with a bachelor’s degree and majors in international management and French – developed a passion for Morocco during a 2006 summer internship with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Rabat, Morocco.

“Water is a scarce resource in Morocco,” Duin said. “I’m ecstatic about this opportunity. I still can’t believe it’s real.”

Established in 1946, the Fulbright program aims to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries, through the exchange of people, knowledge, and skills.

The program sends approximately 1,100 American scholars and professionals per year to more than 130 countries, where they lecture and conduct research in a variety of academic and professional fields.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

Aaron Flohrs, a 2005 graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College, has won a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship.

Aaron Flohrs, a 2005 graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College from Ormsby, Minn., has won a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship to conduct research in Switzerland on the World Trade Organization (WTO). His fellowship, which is for one year starting in August 2005, was announced by the J. William Fulbright Scholarship Board in May.

Flohrs, an international management and political science double major at Gustavus who graduates summa cum laude on May 29, intends to examine whether bias toward the WTO’s most dominant and influential members exists in the organization’s dispute settlement mechanism. “The current round of trade talks within the WTO has been dubbed a ‘development’ round,” he says, “promising to focus on issues relevant to the economic development of the majority of the world’s nations. Yet even with this new WTO focus, there are many different aspects of economic development that represent challenges to these nations.”

Critics of the WTO’s current push toward development assert that the organization itself is biased in favor of economically developed nations, he notes, “not in terms of votes within the system but in access to resources, negotiating power, and specifically in the deliberations of the WTO’s dispute settlement body.”

Can the WTO shift its focus toward economic development when its dealings continue to be dominated by its most influential members? Is there a bias toward developed nations in terms of dispute settlement that renders developing nations’ proposals ineffective at the highest levels of trade negotiations? Flohrs’ research proposal is aimed at answering these questions and determining what methods might be available for developing nations to increase their influence and bargaining power within the WTO’s dispute settlement body.

Flohrs’ research topic had its genesis in a study-abroad program he undertook in Geneva, Switzerland, during the spring of his junior year. “The Fulbright is a perfect way to gain experience in an area I really want to explore,” he says. He plans to attend law school following his Fulbright year and eventually work in international trade, whether with the WTO or the U.S. government.

Flohrs is a 2001 graduate of Martin Luther High School in Northrop, and the son of Steven and Connie Flohrs of rural Ormsby, Minn.

The Fulbright program is the flagship international educational program sponsored by the U.S. government. It was established by Congress in 1946 to “increase mutual understanding between people of the United States and people of other countries.” The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board supervises the program and selects students, scholars, teachers, and trainees to participate in several educational exchange programs.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

Bjelland will lecture and do research to compare the redevelopment of brownfield sites, abandoned industrial or commercial properties, in Britain and the United States with regard to urban sustainability.

He is one of approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad to some 140 countries for the 2004-05 academic year through the Fulbright Scholar Program. Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the program’s purpose is to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries.

The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship international educational exchange activity, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Over its 57 years, thousands of U.S. faculty and professionals have studied, taught, or done research abroad, and thousands of their counterparts from other countries have engaged in similar activities in the U.S. They are among more than 250,000 American and foreign university students, K-12 teachers, and university faculty and professionals who have participated in Fulbright exchange programs.

Recipients of the Fulbright Scholar awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement and because they have demonstrated extraordinary leadership potential in their fields.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510