Givens Fellowship: A decade of changing lives for the world

For more than 10 years the Stuart R. Givens Memorial Fellowship, named for longtime history faculty member and University historian Dr. Stuart Givens, has facilitated experiences that help students meet, shape and sometimes redefine their goals.

The 2017 Givens Fellows, Hannah Finnerty and McKayla Raines, each used her time to explore perspectives of people from other cultures. Finnerty, a multiplatform journalism senior, traveled to Egypt and Greece to explore the balance between advocacy and journalism to more accurately report on the refugee population in two countries.  Raines, a senior international studies student who is minoring in German and political science, visited Palestine to talk with Palestinians to better understand their ideas beyond the American political view.

From her experience, Finnerty hopes to give names, faces and voices to those she feels have otherwise been stripped of their individuality by mainstream media. “Traveling on my own and exposing myself to new cultures and communities allowed my knowledge of the world to expand immensely while still learning about myself."

“There’s not one specific experience that shaped me. Instead, I found it was the people I was able to meet and the opportunities I was given because of these individuals that were the most powerful and influential parts of my trip,” Finnerty said.

Raines lived and bonded with a host family in Palestine, where she practiced her Arabic, taught English and learned more about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Because she is drawn “to working with populations in need,” Raines also visited refugee camps and listened to their stories of cramped quarters, water shortages and bouts of violence that made it difficult to find comfort in day-to-day living.  Violence making it difficult to find real comfort in day-to-day living.

“I’m drawn to working with populations in need,” Raines said. “I want to have an impact on the lives of people who come from areas of conflict,” she said.

Twenty-one students have benefited from the Givens Fellowship since it was established in 2007. They have traveled to destinations as far away as Vietnam, Costa Rica, Kenya and Madagascar, to places closer to home including Colorado, Chicago, New York and Michigan.

The first two recipients in 2007, Martina Hanulova and Elizabeth Kovar, traveled to Ghana, Africa, and India, respectively. Hanulova sought to understand development projects for international organizations, and Kovar pursued a deeper understanding of yoga and meditation.

The fellowship was awarded to three individuals in 2010, each with very different plans. Logan Jacot chose to explore how to create his own circus and sideshow to revive a lost art of entertainment. Paul Hemminger attended a microfinancing internship in Kenya as a way to make a difference in developing countries. And Adam Goldberg studied the history and culture of Japan to bring meaning and importance to his blown glass artwork.  

In 2013 a pair of students won the award for one project. Alex Goetz, a film production student, and Justin Grubb, who studied marine biology, wanted to create a wildlife show, and chose to travel to Costa Rica to shoot scenes for “Running Wild,” a conservation and wildlife show that they developed.

Additional plans and stories of all the Givens Fellows are here.