McMaster University's Undergraduate Council Awards Committee has awarded travel scholarships to 10 students to enhance their educational experience with travel abroad:

Nisha Thampi, honours Arts & Science (biology), received the Russell T. Wilkins Travel Scholarship of $6,000 to travel to Zambia. Thampi plans to study the psychological problems facing orphans whose parents have died from AIDS. Thampi will work in four orphanages in the capital city of Lusaka and will live in one of the orphanages. Her work with the orphans will be considered fieldwork for her undergraduate thesis.

Tania Wong, honours biology and psychology, was awarded the Russell T. Wilkins Travel Scholarship of $6,000 to travel to the Mount Everest region of Nepal. She will spend a month with Envirotreks Canada giving environmental workshops to elementary school children in the region and helping to clean up the Everest base camp. When she returns to McMaster in the fall she has volunteered to present her Mount Everest experiences to the university community.

Aimie Johnson, honours French and modern languages, was granted the A. G. Alexander Travel Scholarship of $5,500 to study in Paris, France. She plans to pursue her interest in Blaise Pascal, in addition to attending language classes and volunteering at the Paris YMCA. She also will live with a family to improve her conversational skills. Johnson hopes her experiences in France will help her prepare for her chosen career as a French teacher.

Claire Knight, honours history, was awarded the A. G. Alexander Travel Scholarship of $5,500 to study at Oxford University in England. She plans to take part in Oxford's Summer Program in History, Politics and Society and take courses entitled “Modern Russian Politics” and “The Fall of the British Empire, 1945-1997.” Her long-term academic goal is to pursue graduate work in international relations.

Elena Mallard, honours modern languages and linguistics, received the A. G. Alexander Travel Scholarship of $5,500 to study in Paris, France and Rome, Italy. She plans to study the Italian language and literature at Studioitalia in Rome for six weeks and then to travel to Paris, France to spend four weeks studying French at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. Upon graduation, Mallard plans to complete an International Master's of Business Administration.

Angelika Sellick, honours English and history, was granted the Joan Jackson Dunbar Travel Scholarship of $3,500 to study Shakespeare at the University of Cambridge in England. She will attend Cambridge's Shakespeare Summer School during the month of July. Sellick plans to pursue a master's degree in history after graduating from McMaster.

Erika Smith, honours English and multimedia, received the Joan Jackson Dunbar Travel Scholarship of $3,500 to study at the University of Cambridge in England. Smith plans to enroll in the University of Cambridge's English Literature Summer School Program and to take courses in contemporary fiction and poetry.

Jennifer Ruddle, honours classics and French, was awarded the E. T. Salmon Scholarship of $2,000. The scholarship is awarded to a deserving student in their final year of study. The financial support for her fourth year will greatly benefit Ruddle since she will be unavailable for summer employment. She plans to spend six weeks this summer teaching French in a missionary program in Senegal.

Julie-Ann Seaton, honours French, received the Beale Lincoln Travel Scholarship of $1,000 to help defray the costs of spending an academic year in France. Seaton plans to immerse herself in French by participating in the Rhone-Alpes exchange to Lyons, France next year. She will take courses at the University of Lyons where she will be studying with native French speakers.

Ben Huynh, honours Arts & Science, was granted the Class of '37 Travel Scholarship of $900 to help defray costs of a trip to Vietnam. Huynh is one of 30 students from across Canada selected to participate in the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) six-week seminar in Vietnam this summer. Huynh plans to research the impact of economic development on Vietnam's biodiversity.