DRCLAS announces grant awards

The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) has awarded a total of 111 grants to undergraduate and graduate students pursuing research and internship projects in Latin America this coming summer. Fifty-nine undergraduate and 52 graduate students received grants to help fund summer thesis field research and internships in the public and private sectors throughout Latin America, including nine graduate student awards for projects carried out within the United States related to Latin America and/or Latino populations.

Students will be traveling for a diverse set of projects, ranging from an internship at the Bulgarian Embassy in Mexico City, to conducting dissertation research on Uruguayan murga music and street theater, to photographing beetle specimens in the Dominican Republic. DRCLAS has also awarded six graduate students in history the Mellon Summer Research Travel Grant and four graduate students the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship for the study of Latin American languages. Additionally, DRCLAS is sponsoring eight undergraduate students to participate in the WorldTeach Ecuador and Costa Rica programs through which students travel to developing countries to teach English.

In addition, DRCLAS has announced the pilot year of its Summer Internship Program in Santiago, Chile, which places students in internship sites in Santiago for the purpose of providing them with meaningful experiences abroad. The program, run through the DRCLAS regional office in Chile, offers students a one-week orientation, placement in internship sites and a local home stay, continued Spanish language training, and weekly local excursions. DRCLAS has placed students in organizations as varied as a leading regional investment bank, a nonprofit working for people with disabilities, and UN-affiliated organizations. This summer, 29 undergraduates will participate in the summer internship program in Chile, which is subsidized by the David Rockefeller Center, the Center for Public Interest Careers, and the Office of Career Services.

This fall semester, DRCLAS will hold information sessions for undergraduate and graduate students interested in future travel opportunities in Latin America. Visit the DRCLAS Web site for deadline announcements at http://drclas.fas.harvard.edu.