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MIAMI UNIVERSITY
Three Miami students land Fulbright grants to study abroad
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
OXFORD — When most people watch hip hop dancing they don't think about its relationship to architecture.
Franklin Grace III does and he is traveling all the way to South Korea to explore the connection.
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Grace was one of three Miami University students awarded a Fulbright grant to spend a year researching and studying abroad.
"I haven't traveled much ... and I wanted to go somewhere different, somewhere I may not get to go to again," Grace said. "South Korea stood out because hip hop is so huge there."
Hip hop is similar to architecture, he said, in that it examines body and form in space. Grace uses the dance style to guide his designs.
One of the families Grace researched in South Korea was a poor family who put all of their money together with other families in the community to open a hip hop studio.
"That's how important it is to them," he said.
Grace received the grant to teach English in South Korea and though he does not currently speak the language, he will take a six-week intensive course, which he hopes will make him proficient.
Grace, from Columbus, received his bachelor's degree from Denison University and his master's in architecture from Miami.
Another Fulbright recipient, Annemarie Spadafore, will spend the year researching in the European Union.
The Cincinnati native received her bachelor's degree from Ohio State University and a master's degree from Miami. She is currently working on a dissertation titled "Between Politics and Industry: The U.S.- E.U. Commercial Aircraft Subsidies Dispute" for her doctorate from Miami.
Spadafore is examining a case before the World Trade Organization between Boeing and Airbus about subsidies to examine larger issues of globalization.
"Even though we think we are so similar and the world is so homogenous, it really isn't," Spadafore said.
Although in the United States people may tend to believe the government should stay out of business deals, Spadafore said in Europe that is not necessarily true.
"Every country is now being faced with what they are going to do to continue to be successful in the world economy," Spadafore said. "Protectionism might increase, we often think capitalism has won out. But it is amazing the sly under-the-radar protectionism that continues to occur and will likely increase."
The final Fulbright recipient, Dusty Wilmes, is pursuing an English teaching assistantship in Russia.
Wilmes, a Dayton resident who received his bachelor's degree from Miami, said the trip has been a longtime in coming. He applied for the Fulbright the previous year and didn't get it, but wasn't deterred.
"Even if I hadn't gotten the Fulbright I would have gone eventually," Wilmes said. "I've wanted to live in Russia and become fluent in the language."
David Keitges, Miami's director of international education, said Miami succeeds in obtaining the scholarship well above the national norms.
Keitges said one out of five people who apply generally get picked, but Miami success rates range from three out of 12 this year or as high as six out of seven applicants in previous years.
