Grads win Fulbrights for research abroad

Two recent Skidmore alumnae have received Fulbright grants that will enable each to live and work in Europe for an academic year, starting this fall. Tessa Fixter-Coniglio '08 of Washington, D.C., will fulfill a long-term goal when she travels to Germany to teach English. Caryn Saslow '09 will head to Geneva, Switzerland, to research non-formal education for sustainable development.

Both are seasoned travelers, having each spent a semester abroad during their undergraduate years. Fixter-Coniglio studied in Austria. "I loved it and knew I wanted to go back," she said. Saslow spent the spring semester of her junior year in Geneva, where she undertook an independent study of formal education for sustainable development. "It opened my eyes to the many issues surrounding sustainability and its implementation into the formal education discourse," she said.

Fixter-Coniglio's interest in all things German began at an early age. "Ever since I was young, I've been very interested in German history and culture," she recalls. As proof, she cited her request?made during second grade?for a copy of The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. She said, "I can't remember if I really understood the book but I wanted to know what happened and why." This spring, as a volunteer at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, Fixter-Coniglio has been editing oral histories from villagers in Eastern Europe for a project titled "Witness to the Holocaust: Complacency and Complicity." The stories are from people who saw what was happening but either did not understand, or were too young to realize the nature of what they were seeing, according to Fixter-Coniglio.

When she was in high school, her family hosted an exchange student from Germany?a rarity in the small upstate New York community of Mount Morris. "I was considered an oddity," Fixter-Coniglio admits. She remains friendly with that student (the two women "Skype" each other often) and the friends reconnected when Fixter-Coniglio was in Austria. Said Fixter-Coniglio in her Fulbright application letter, "It is through Insa that I have experienced the difficulties and rewards that come with learning and teaching a foreign language."

Her personal experience will serve as a foundation when she begins teaching English to middle- and high-school students near the Weimar region of east-central Germany.

In one sense, Fixter-Coniglio has been preparing for her Fulbright year for quite some time. It was at Skidmore that she began to study the German language, history, and culture. (She majored in history with a minor in German.) In her senior thesis she examined a number of historical debates relating to Germany's struggle to come to terms with its Nazi past. She told the Fulbright committee in her application, "The more I study and comprehend history, the more I realize it is vital for understanding and addressing the problems of the present."

The problems of the present-specifically, the challenges of climate change and sustainable development-will be the focus of Caryn Saslow's Fulbright-supported research. The international affairs major hopes that her study "Non-formal education for sustainable development (ESD) in the Canton of Geneva" will contribute to the success of the U.N.'s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, which started in 2005.

Saslow's interest was sparked during the spring semester of her junior year in Geneva, where she conducted a one-month study of formal ESD within the developed world. She explained that "non-formal ESD is distinguished from formal ESD because it does not take place within the context of formal education institutions."

In her Fulbright personal statement, Saslow, an international affairs major who minored in music, discussed how these two specialties converge in her. "Ever since I was young, music has had a profound influence on my life," she said. Performing increased her awareness of the social aspects of music, and in its power to transcend cultural, religious, political, and socioeconomic boundaries. Said Saslow, "If humans are willing to work together for the sake of making beautiful music, they most certainly can unite to create a more sustainable world as well."

As part of her independent study, Saslow connected with experts representing the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the U.N. Environmental Programme, the World Wildlife Fund of Suisse Romande, and the International Peace Bureau, among others. Several of those contacts will assist her when she returns in the fall.

Working out of the University of Geneva, Saslow will undertake a three-stage study, beginning with identifying the most critical issues that non-formal ESD can address. In stage two, she will conduct surveys and interviews to elicit "the views of civil society on sustainable development within the Canton of Geneva." Saslow believes that citizens, acting as producers, consumers, and voters, can contribute significantly to sustainability efforts.

In the third part of her research, Saslow will examine past and current non-formal ESD efforts in Geneva to assess the fit between civil society's needs and the structure of Geneva and to learn how each organization attempts to raise awareness for the well being of the citizens of the canton.

Saslow says that ES 100 "opened my eyes to the importance and all-encompassing nature of sustainable development with its three pillars: environmental protection, social equity, and economic growth." While in Switzerland as a Skidmore junior, her interest rose when she discovered "many of my classmates had not been informed about sustainable development in the past." She hopes that her Fulbright year will be the first step to a career in sustainable development, which she recognizes will involve graduate study.

But first, she will travel to Latin America where she would like to work with a non-government organization on sustainable issues. She thinks the experience will give her the kind of training she needs to make a meaningful contribution toward solving this global problem.