Caroline Davis, a candidate for May graduation from Hamilton, has been awarded a Fulbright Grant to Kenya. She will spend the 2011-12 academic year studying methods of transitional justice among Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) in the Rift Valley province of Kenya. Under the guidance of Lazarus Kubasu Nolasco and Samwel Musumba, the co-founders of the government established Provincial Peace Forum in Nakuru, Davis will examine the perspectives of both settled and resettled IDPs with regard to national transitional justice, conflict resolutions and peacemaking.
Davis spent last summer interning with the Provincial Peace Forum in Nakuru and also studied abroad for a semester in 2009 in Nairobi, Kenya. She was the recipient of a Davis Project for Peace Fellowship through which she received $10,000 to use on a community development project, “Empowering the Hadzabe as Agents of Peace: Health for Cultural Preservation,” which took her to Lake Eyasi, Tanzania, during the summer of 2009. An interdisciplinary studies major, she has also studied in Puto, Ecuador, in 2008, and in Atenas, Costa Rica, in 2007.
At Hamilton Davis is the 2010 recipient of the Milton F. Fillius Jr. /Joseph Drown Prize Scholarship, awarded for academic, success, outstanding leadership qualities and likelihood to make a significant contribution to society in the future. She is a member of the Community Outreach and Opportunities Project (COOP) advisory board, a COOP senior intern, has been an Alternative Spring break group for the last three years, served as Yoga Club co-president, leads an interfaith discussion group, and has served on the advisory board for Water for Sudan.
Upon her return to the U.S. Davis will pursue a master’s degree in peace studies and conflict resolution and then seek an international career in the field of conflict resolution with a specific focus on east Africa.
Davis is the daughter of Janice and James Davis of Centerville, Mass., and a graduate of Choate Rosemary Hall.
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers fellowships for U.S. graduating college seniors, graduate students, young professionals and artists to study abroad for one academic year. The purpose of the Fulbright Program is to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge and skills. The program is designed to give recent college graduates opportunities for personal development and international experience.
The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by Congress to the Department of State. The U.S. Student Program awards approximately 900 grants annually and currently operates in more than 140 countries worldwide.
