Release date: April 29, 2003
Contact: Deb Hammacher, Associate Director, University Media Relations,
at 404-727-0644 or dhammac@emory.edu

Student Receives $32,000 Beinecke Scholarship

Emory University student Melanie Clouser has been selected as one of only 22 college juniors across the country to receive a $32,000 Beinecke Scholarship for graduate study. Clouser is the daughter of Don and Marilyn Clouser of Silverton, Ore. (97381), and is a graduate of Silverton High School.

"This is a highly competitive scholarship, and it is a tremendous honor for her to win this," says Joanne Brzinski, associate dean for academic affairs, adding that Emory only nominates one junior a year from a strong pool of candidates for the Beinecke Scholarship.

"I am thrilled and honored to receive the scholarship, which will be of great help to me as I pursue graduate work, and I'm extremely appreciative of those who helped me," Clouser says.

Each Beinecke scholar receives $2,000 immediately prior to entering graduate school and an additional $30,000 while attending graduate school. There are no geographic restrictions on the use of the scholarship, and recipients are allowed to supplement the award with other scholarships, assistantships and research grants.

The award is limited to students planning to attend graduate school in the arts, humanities and social sciences.

Clouser has excelled at Emory since transferring from Willamette University in Oregon prior to her junior year. Clouser chose Emory to pursue her interest in Middle Eastern studies in the university's acclaimed program. While at Emory, she has made the dean's list as an interdisciplinary and Middle Eastern studies major who is studying Arabic for her minor. She also was inducted into the Mortar Board national honor society this past semester.

Clouser, who has spent a semester abroad in Morocco, says she plans to pursue a doctorate in Middle Eastern studies after she graduates from Emory next year, and hopes to attend Harvard University, University of California-Berkeley, University of Chicago or New York University. Her ultimate goal is to work with an international organization such as the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

"I want to work to improve the daily lives of people in countries with high illiteracy rates. I think learning is very important and everyone should have a chance to participate in scholarship," Clouser says.

Clouser also is a program coordinator for Volunteer Emory, leading a weekly volunteer trip to an Atlanta refugee organization to tutor children in an after-school program. She works as a foreign language tutor in Arabic, Spanish and French as well, and has volunteered at Emory's Michael C. Carlos Museum and with the office of the dean of the chapel to help coordinate worship services for the Emory community. She also is a member of Emory's International Students Association and the Muslim Women's Literary Society.

The Beinecke Scholarship program was established in 1971 by the Sperry and Hutchinson Company to create an endowment to provide substantial scholarships for the graduate education of young men and women of exceptional promise. The program seeks to encourage highly motivated students to pursue opportunities available to them and to be courageous in the selection of a graduate course of study.

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