Flinn Scholars

UA 'Coffee Hours"

2010-09-01 13:52:29 -0700

UA 'Coffee Hours"

2010 Centennial Lecture featuring Edward James Olmos

2010-09-01 13:06:22 -0700

2010 Centennial Lecture featuring Edward James Olmos

2010 Centennial Lecture Scholar Reception with Edward James Olmos

2010-09-01 13:00:16 -0700

2010 Centennial Lecture Scholar Reception with Edward James Olmos

Scholarship Finalists' Interviews

2010-09-01 09:23:11 -0700

Scholarship Finalists' Interviews

Scholarship Finalists' Reception and Dinner

2010-09-01 09:21:06 -0700

Scholarship Finalists' Reception and Dinner

All Scholarship Applicant Notifications

2010-09-01 09:06:22 -0700

All Scholarship Applicant Notifications

Scholarship Semi-Finalists' Interviews

2010-09-01 08:57:28 -0700

Scholarship Semi-Finalists' Interviews

Film icon Edward James Olmos to meet with Scholars

Matt Ellsworth — 2010-09-01

In 1985, the Flinn Foundation made a grant to Arizona State University establishing an endowment in honor of the the university's 100th anniversary. The endowment gave birth to the Centennial Lecture, one of the premier annual cultural events at ASU.

A great perk for Flinn Scholars: because of the lecture's tie to the Foundation, each Centennial Lecturer's weeklong stay at ASU includes a session with current Flinn Scholars (from any of Arizona's universities).

During my own undergraduate experience as a Scholar, there were few experiences more invigorating than those sessions with the Centennial Lecturer--luminaries like naturalist Stephen Jay Gould, journalist James Fallows, and writer Annie Dillard.

So a word of advice to current Scholars: Get your organic-chemistry homework done early and don't miss the chance to meet Edward James Olmos, one of the premier actors working today, who will be meeting with Scholars on October 10.

Those of you in the broader community: Olmos will present his public lecture, entitled "We're All in the Same Gang," on October 12. It's free. It's timely. You can read more about it on the Barrett Honors College website.

2011 Flinn Scholarship application available now

Flinn Scholars — 2010-08-30

Students interested in the 2011 Flinn Scholarship: First, familiarize yourself with the process outlined in this article and read our general description of What It Takes and our lists of Strategies for Success and Frequently Asked Questions. Then follow the link at the end of this article to begin your application.

Summer internship introduces Flinn Scholar to research world

Flinn Scholars — 2010-08-25

One of the important advantages that Arizona's universities offer is the opportunity for students to conduct research as undergraduates--or even earlier. In this narrative, Laura Moedano, a first-year Flinn Scholar from Yuma, describes her participation this summer in the University of Arizona's KEYS Research Internships, a program she learned about while visiting UA in February as a finalist for the Flinn Scholarship.

Longtime Arizona Policy Expert to Lead New Flinn Foundation Initiative

Flinn Scholars — 2010-08-23

The Flinn Foundation has appointed Nancy Welch, a nationally recognized public-policy analyst, to lead an emerging program to strengthen civic leadership in Arizona.

What is the Flinn Scholarship worth?

Matt Ellsworth — 2010-07-30

Between late next month, when Flinn Scholarship applications go live, and the middle of next May, when we announce the Class of 2011, one of the most frequently asked questions that Foundation staff will receive is:

"So, what is the Flinn Scholarship worth?"

Sometimes, I can just about see the wheels turning in an applicant or parent's mind as I rattle off what the award provides--an allotment for study and travel abroad, funding for room and board, the value of eight semesters of tuition provided by the university. Add it up, and you have a sum near $90,000.

People tend to hear that number in a couple of different ways.

For some people (this was me in the fall of 1993), it sounds almost like the Powerball jackpot, the kind of largess that would change one's life. I was one of those applicants for whom it was either win the Flinn Scholarship or scrape together work-study, a partial scholarship, tons of loans, and still be living pretty frugally--definitely lacking the resources for study abroad, for example.

For other people, the monetary benefit of the scholarship sounds, well, small. I've quoted a figure that's almost insignificant. Over the course of a year or two of researching universities, they've gotten used to the idea of Ivy League sticker prices, to the extent that $200,000 for tuition alone has started to sound normal.

In either case, though, if I answer that question--"What is the Flinn Scholarship worth?"--by talking about money, I've given an answer that isn't really accurate. The Flinn Scholarship doesn't have that much to do with money.

I say that while fully aware of how beneficial it was to not have money worries as an undergraduate. My options expanded dramatically. My capacity to concentrate my energy on my studies, on creative pursuits, on campus activities, on travel--all of that was magnified tenfold by the modest financial freedom that the scholarship permitted me.

But still, the Flinn Scholarship doesn't have that much to do with money. I think this is closer to what it means:

A few weeks ago, I was emailing back and forth with a Scholar alum who was in town to visit family for the weekend. The alum told me that something wasn't right at home; the alum's father was showing indications of some kind of neurological problem. It wasn't an acute event like a stroke, but it had apparently been worsening rapidly over the course of several weeks. The alum, a young doctor, was growing worried.

Because I was about to leave on vacation, I didn't learn for more than a week what happened. The alum ended up taking the father to the emergency room at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center the next day. Within 48 hours, he was in surgery at Barrow Neurological Institute to have multiple brain tumors removed.

Having recently lost my own father to a long struggle with cancer, I understood some of what the alum was experiencing. Still, there was really very little I could do to help. But I knew who could. I wrote the alum another email:

We have a Scholar alum who's the medical director of neurorehabilitation at Barrow. Christina Kwasnica has stayed in close contact with the Foundation, and I'm sure she would be receptive if you run in to any obstacles in the next little while. I'd be happy to put you in touch with her.

Tina Kwasnica ('87), a graduate of Mesa Dobson High School, had returned to Arizona after med school at Northwestern University, and had soon enough assumed important clinical leadership roles at Barrow. Earlier this year, Phoenix Magazine called Tina (pictured on the right) one of metro Phoenix's five "most innovative physicians who are taking patient care into the next frontier."

The alum wrote me back late that night:

Ironically, Dr. Kwasnica is my dad's neurorehab doc and I just got off of the phone with her. I love the Flinn family. Now I am much more reassured, even though I haven't even met her in person, that my dad is getting terrific care. Isn't that funny?

How do you quantify the value of gaining a second family? I can't. And that's why, when I meet an applicant or a parent, it can be so hard to answer their questions satisfactorily.

If I have enough time, I end up resorting to stories like this one. There are more of them, many more, stories that just about any current or alumni Flinn Scholar could tell of what the Flinn scholarship is really worth.

Photo by flickr user nathangibbs

Celebrating the first 25 years of Flinn Scholars

Michael Cochise Young — 2010-07-23

Here at the Foundation, it can make our heads spin: how quickly Flinn Scholars go from being wide-eyed freshmen living in residence halls for the first time, to being attorneys, parents, small-business owners, research scientists, professional filmmakers--you name it.

Next month, the 25th class of Flinn Scholars begin their undergraduate adventures. With that milestone imminent, we think it's time to celebrate the growth of the Flinn Scholarship Program, the accomplishments of its participants, and the lifelong friendships to which it has given birth.

Actually, we've already begun our commemoration of the Scholars 25th year; our Recognition Dinner this past May was a wonderful chance to rekindle relationships with a few of our alumni and some of our longtime partners at Arizona's universities and in the community.

To continue the celebration, we're inviting our community of nearly 400 alumni to come home. October 1-3, we'll have a weekend-long reunion--we're imagining it as a grown-up version of the annual retreat we hold each August for current Scholars. The weekend will even include a "musicale" reminiscent of the talent show held at the retreat. And we are hoping to invite some of our current Scholars to join in with alumni for that particular activity.

(Alumni, you should already have a save-the-date card on your refrigerator, and you'll shortly receive a formal invitation to the reunion weekend.)

Next spring, we'll follow up with a series of one-day seminars addressing some of Arizona's most important contemporary concerns. Panelists at these seminars will include representatives from the Flinn Scholar alumni community in Arizona--now more than 120 strong. These are individuals making important contributions in a variety of fields, to make Arizona a better place for the next 25 years.

ASU 2011 Spring Commencement

2010-06-25 14:20:17 -0700

ASU 2011 Spring Commencement

UA 2011 Spring Commencement

2010-06-25 14:15:51 -0700

UA 2011 Spring Commencement

UA 2011 Spring Semester Classes End

2010-06-25 14:14:58 -0700

UA 2011 Spring Semester Classes End

2009 Flinn Scholars complete seminar in Central Europe

Flinn Scholars — 2010-06-22

Undeterred by an airline union strike, a still-smoldering Icelandic volcano, or an unusually rainy first week, the 17 members of the Flinn Scholars class of 2009 enjoyed a successful three-week seminar together in the Central European nations of Hungary and Romania.

On the Road 2010: Day Twenty-Two

Travel Dispatches — 2010-06-17

Each summer the Flinn Scholars Program takes an entire class of Scholars to Budapest, Hungary, and neighboring Romania for a three-week seminar on the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Nesima Aberra ('09)

Today was by far the most bittersweet day out of the entire Central European seminar. Bittersweet, because it was the most fun and engaging (in my opinion), while it meant we are near the end of the trip and will soon be leaving Hungary, our home away from home.

In the morning after eating breakfast, we took the metro to Graphisoft Park, an amazing park akin to Silicon Valley that hosts 40 companies from Microsoft to SAP and Servier. The park was very clean and well kept with elements of whimsical creativity and architecture that one would only expect to see around such talented designers. One sculpture that impressed us all was a giant Rubix cube on the lawn. We learned earlier in the trip that the Rubix cube was created by a Hungarian, so it was an obvious symbol of the country’s pride in their scientific and mathematical development.

Meeting Gabor Bajor, the entrepreneur who founded the Graphisoft company, the park and the Aquincum Institute of Technology was an amazing experience. Despite not being a business or science major, I was fascinated by his story of going from a physics major during the Communist-era Hungary to becoming a successful owner of a leading software firm.

Bajor craved bettering himself and bettering those around him, something that was looked down upon at his workplace under the Communist-style economy. His passion to compete and win made him realize that a free market with private ownership would be the most effective. As he said in his lecture, his goal was to “find people better than the owner.” Luckily, once private firms were legal in Hungary, Bajor jumped at the opportunity.

Bajor’s design company was cutting edge and had a competitive advantage because they were the first to do 3D modeling on PCs. This was easier and cheaper and would allow him to compete in the global market. His plan failed to garner attention from large oil companies and big corporations because they didn’t trust the idea, but Bajor said that architects were the perfect customers, because they are generally poorer and were happy to find such an affordable product.

This kind of business sense really connected with all of us and made me really admire Bajor’s passion for understanding his customers, paying attention to their mistakes and creating a product that serves the market best. Now that he has retired from Graphisoft, Bajor heads the Aquincum Institute of Techonology, which he hopes will train software engineers from abroad and make the school a competitor with American universities. According to Bajor, the 21st century is the century of the knowledge-based economy, so education is where his business mind is focused.

After listening to such a genius, we all had lots to talk about as we chowed down on a delicious pizza lunch in the Graphisoft cafeteria. We got to experience more creativity at the Ady Museum, dedicated to the great Hungarian poet Endre Ady. I had never heard of him before, but once reading through his poems with the guidance of our lecturer, Geza Kallay, I understood why he was so revered.

t was fun to analyze the poetry and discuss them with each other and then try our hand at writing our own poems at the Central Coffee House. Strangely, we had another lunch there, which was meant to be a very very early dinner since we would be later attending a ballet in the evening. Somehow we managed to finish our meal, along with dessert and coffee, as we listened to each other’s hilarious and entertaining amateur poetry.

We had a bit of free time to get ready before the ballet in the evening, but most of us went back to get dressed up since it would be a fancy event. The ballet was nothing short of amazing. We were all given box seats, which gave us not only a great view of the stage but also an air of prestige that is quite uncommon for the average college student.

There were five different performances, but unanimously, the group loved the final performance, entitled Whirling, which featured beautifully executed choreography, hauntingly melancholy music and even rain. The audience was so into the ballet that the applause lasted for over 5 minutes and compelled the dancers to bow over and over again and even come out in front of the curtains once they were already drawn. This was very amusing to my friends and I, because it seemed a tad excessive, but nonetheless, the dancers certainly deserved it after such quality work.

The night ended with ice-cream sundaes at a café outside the opera house and a viewing of the France vs. Mexico soccer game. After such an eventful day experiencing various parts of Hungarian talents, I went to bed quite inspired by the level of cultural immersion we had but also sad that it is almost over.

On the Road 2010: Day Twenty-One

Travel Dispatches — 2010-06-16

Galen Lamphere-Englund ('09)

Today was a much-needed day of rest, recuperation, and reflection. Frightfully early this morning we boarded our bus, which has begun to smell a tad off after several weeks of occupation, and Lszl began the long drive back to Budapest from Cluj-Napoca. After being roused barely an hour into our sleep we all lapsed back into silent, deep sleep during much of the eight hour ride.

There were a few moments of consciousness during the drive, and in those precious glimpses of light I found myself reflecting back on the past week in Transylvania. There has been beautiful humanity: the faces of our gracious hosts in Homorodszentpeter, the inquisitive looks from children outside the one store in Targu Mures; the bouncing Latin club in Cluj, filled with incredibly friendly Iraqi soldiers training with the Romanian military.

The remarkable bonds of commonality between all people is even more apparent here. Whether in small villages that are struggling with integrating into a modern world or in odd clubs that reek of years of smoke and dance, I see similar faces to ones I know back home. While conversing about esoteric political philosophy with a Croatian expatriate in a cozy bar in Pest, I realized, more viscerally than ever before, that there are no true differences between humans anywhere. I find personalities that I know everywhere I go. There are friends of kindred spirit, even though we have may never before met have met. Common faces, bodies, ideas, and, above all, a shared sense of humanity is impossible to escape once one desires to see them. The lessons spurred by that revelation have been potent ones. Our biases, largely created by superficial societies, engender such strong blinders over our eyes that we truly forget each other.

However, the lessons to be learned here by opening one's eyes are not limited to personal ones. While driving through the verdant farmlands of Translyvania I could not help but stare at the horrific testimonials to Chauchescu's tyrannical rule. One of the other Flinns remarked the all the buildings are black and dirty here, a symptom of the many years of unchecked pollution. Giant concrete industrial complexes litter the fields: nuclear reactors, coal power plants, and half-functioning, degrading train stations. Close to one of our stops earlier in the week lay Copsa Mica, one of the most polluted sites in all Europe, where all the trees for ten miles are stained with black soot even fifteen years after most functions stopped. The dictator's mad push for industrialization without any balancing or environmental checks has wrecked havoc on the environment and health of much of Romania. His concrete, Soviet bloc-style complexes for former village dwellers, erected over beautiful old sectors of towns, serve as reminders in the cities of that crazed drive.

Yet today stringent new EU regulations threaten to achieve what even Chauchescu could not: a complete elimination of small farmers and more harmonious village life. Instead of heeding the lessons of unchecked, perilous progress, the entire world is now forging ahead, led by Western industry, in foolishly forgetting the permacultural techniques employed in the old villages. Why do we, as a culture and modern world, continually seek to reinvent our ways in search of new "profits"? Why do we not instead look to the past and observe the lesson that have been taught before?

Perhaps this is the most potent lesson that I am being taught my our travels: Just as there are no different humans around the world, so too are there are no "new ideologies" or "grand ideas." New thoughts, new iterations perhaps, but no truly new individual ideas. Those belong to us all and they are immutable through human time and space. Romania has opened my eyes even wider to realize this truth.

On the Road 2010: Day Twenty

Travel Dispatches — 2010-06-15

Dawn Cole ('09)

Today was our last day in Cluj, and everyone was feeling a little gloomy as we began to realize that our time together was quickly coming to an end. Add to that the exhaustion and sadness from the previous night–it was Katherine’s last night with us, after all--and we were a shabby looking group I am sure.

The talk on environmental issues was unfortunately cancelled, but the final question-and-answer session with Zoltan proved to be a very good wrap-up of what we encountered in Romania. I am still amazed by people’s attitudes when they talk about the past--even as Zoltan described the oppression and fear of his childhood, he expressed no sense of need for revenge or retribution. It's as if the people are just tired after so many years of suffering and would rather save the energy to try to improve things than complain about things that cannot be changed. I really appreciate this because, although it is so logical, I personally have not encountered this mentality very often.

During the several hours of free time in the afternoon, Laurel and I visited the Botanical Gardens. An explosion of 600 varieties of roses separated the present from the past as we left the crowded and noisy street and entered a full rain forest. I felt as though I was back in Costa Rica as we wandered through this temporal oasis. We also found statues of Ceres, the god of grain and cereals, keeping watch over traditional peasant gardens from the Roman age.

Zoltan told me later that much of the nearby Romanian countryside used to be covered by similar forest vegetation, but with the expansion and industrialization of cities, much of it was lost. It is hard to imagine that such serenity once existed in those now-hectic spaces stained by years of human inhabitance.

We walked through the cemetery on our way back to the city, and we took time to notice the birth and death dates. When I think of a cemetery, I have the somewhat “romantic” idea that the people buried there represent the “everyman" who worked and suffered alongside everyone else (I guess any concept of someone being “normal” is somewhat romantic in and of itself, but still). But upon reflection, I realized that with so many people and so little space, and the size and spectacle of the headstones, these were no ordinary men and women. They represented the elite, the well-connected, and the wealthy.

And again, pardon the pun, even here there is buried so much history. In one place we saw a set of at least eight graves sharing the same name. As we looked closer, we saw that they were all brothers, born in 1916, 1918, 1919, 1921… and they all shared the same fate, dying in 1944, 1945. Of the eight, only one--the sister--was spared. She still lives today, her gravestone just sitting there waiting to be finished.

For me, this day just showed that the history of this place is everywhere--you just have to look a little closer to discover the story. It all makes me wonder--how aware are people living in these ancient cities of the history of the places that surround them? Does their knowledge of the past increase their sense of nationalism, or are they like the many Arizonans who have never visited the wonder of the world that sits in their backyard (the Grand Canyon)? How much of their identity as a Hungarian or Romanian is tied to the physical infrastructure and how much is simply rooted in the culture of the people that surround them? Do Hungarians miss their beloved land lost in the Treaty of Treanon with such passion because they lost those physical monuments that embody the past, or because of the lifestyles and peoples those lands supported? And finally, just as the forests were transformed first to agricultural lands and then to cities, what will these cities eventually become? How will the complex histories of these lands shape their future?

On the Road 2010: Day Nineteen

Travel Dispatches — 2010-06-14

Adam Martinez ('09)

Several somnolent Scholars were greeted with a rudely early wake-up call in the form of gale-force winds at four in the morning. Ultimately, the damage was small: one broken window in Sachi and Emma's sleeping quarters. Needless to say, it gave them quite a fright, and many of us rode out the rest of the storm questioning the structural integrity of each of our small huts.

The morning began again under better pretenses at around eight, when we awoke to the smell of fresh rain and the sound of birds chirping in Romanian. Herded by our responsible chaperones, we made our way to the bus to depart to Cluj. The next few minutes saw us waving goodbye to both the immaculate lawn, upon which the hotel management had forbidden us to tread, and the looming Rimetean mountain, to which the thunderstorm had likewise denied us access. We got settled on the bus and, after a bout of bleary-eyed yet blessedly-brief reflections, took advantage of the opportunity to supplement our meager sleep supply.

The duration of the actual bus ride remains a mystery. Each passenger was either still caught up in the previous eventful night, looking forward to Cluj, or happily dreaming of shower curtains, peanut butter, and marshmallows, three objects that the Iron Curtain seems to have permanently scared out of Central Europe.

We crested the last hill before the city of Cluj, the supposed laundry Mecca of Romania, a detail that was anything but unappreciated by this ragged band of sink-launderers. Unfortunately, we appeared to have been misled, as laundromats were as elusive there as they were in every other city we had visited. Nevertheless, our attitudes were far brighter than our travel-worn attire would suggest, and we marched on proudly, if somewhat odorously.

After a brief stop at the hotel to gather our wits, we were whisked away to the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at Babe?-Bolyai University, the premier public university of Romania. Our lecture was on the Romanian economy, and it was given by Professor Michaela Lutas in a stuffy, humid room in which the air hadn't been conditioned until our arrival. By the time the atmosphere became bearable, the lecture had finished and we'd exhausted our questions. Regardless, it was quite informative, particularly about Romania's economy just prior to the economic downturn of 2008.

Next on the agenda was a themed video scavenger hunt in the heart of Cluj. Our gang of Flinn Scholars split into four smaller groups, each of which was handed a themed list of clues. The clues (perhaps objectives or directions would be more accurate) were the same for everybody, things like "Sing a Disney song in a public place" or "Taste an authentic Romanian dessert." The themes, however, differed, and included "Transition," "Contradiction," "History," and one that appears to have slipped my mind.

It's safe to say that this activity became the landmark experience of the day--not to suggest that our later folk-dancing lesson wasn't amazing as well. I'm positive that, during the scavenger hunt, each group experienced a great variety of wonderful things, but the only group I can truly speak for is my own. Our first stop was a public fountain swarming with children. It was here that we fulfilled our "Take a video of your group playing" clue. Several clues later and on our way to checking off the "Take a bus to a public monument" clue, we stopped by a fruit stand for sustenance in the form of a kilo of ripe cherries. The rest of the scavenger hunt was a big happy blur, with our enthusiastic, albeit roadweary, band of travelers proceeding fearlessly onward and leaving nothing but good memories and a trail of cherry pits in our wake.

On the Road 2010: Day Eighteen

Travel Dispatches — 2010-06-13

Matt Rolland ('05)

Days up and down they come
like rain on a conga drum
Forget most, remember some,
oh, but don't turn none away
Everything is not enough
Nothing is too much to bear
Where you've been is good and gone
All you keep is the getting there

-Townes Van Zandt, “To Live is to Fly”

These lyrics were floating in my mind as we left our cabins in Targu Mures. What a wonderful day and night it had been. The bonfire smoke clinging to my skin, the taste of fire-baked apples on my lips, memories of late-night philosophizing and cafeteria sing-alongs in my mind. We were all slow to let June 12 go. But as Townes sang, “where you've been is good and gone.” It was time to look ahead to more adventures further into Transylvania.

Sunday, June 13th saw us rising early for breakfast and a bleary-eyed bus trip. The drive to Torocko, called “Rimitea” in Hungarian, was a bumpy and quiet ride except for the occasional snore. By the time we arrived mid-afternoon, the group was ready for some movement. Despite the oppressive heat, a volleyball game was quickly struck up behind our cabins.

But not 30 minutes later, already overheated, we decided to head to the cool waters of the babbling creek. We threw off our shoes and cooled our toes in the frigid water. The adventurous rolled up their pants and waded to the deeper area of the stream. I say adventurous because wading quickly transitioned into playful shoving, which then turned into light splashing and soon morphed into a full-blown water fight. No one was the loser during the hot Romanian summer day.

Soaked and chilled, we oozed our way to the cafeteria hall for lunch and a lecture. Lunch included a new dish for our palettes: bean soup with sour cream. While the food in Targu Mures presented new experiences in general – pink sausages, white bean soups, sour cabbage – it was good to have our food comfort levels challenged.

After lunch, our Romanian guide, Zoltan Soos, gave a lecture on 'Modern Romania'. Zoltan provided a helpful historical perspective to understanding Romania as a confluence of many empires and cultures; Byzantine, Turkish, Russian, and Hungarian powers had all at some point controlled all or part of what we call “Romania.” Providing a new perspective on ethnic relations, Zoltan pointed out that ethnically homogeneous nations are a relatively modern phenomenon. During the Medieval period, empires usually included ten or twelve ethnic groups. Ethnically charged nationalism is a consequence of the French Revolution and the events of the 19th century.

In addition to being an ethnically complex country, Romania is a country in political and economy transition. Zoltan emphasized that even though modern Romania is a member of the EU, it is a weak and centralized economy. With the highest number of police, army, and secret-service employees, per capita, of any country in Europe (40% of Romanian public expenditure), the Romanian public sector is bound for budgetary problems in the same way that Greece and Spain have suffered during the last year. The government has announced an anticipated 25% reduction in government employee salaries. Watching Romania's response to this budget shortfall will be an interesting mirror to how we are dealing with our own budget problems in Arizona.

The presentation was interrupted by deafening claps of thunder. Heavy drops of rain began to pound the pavement outside the cafeteria. The wind howled through the lace window curtains, like rain on a conga drum. Crowded around like desert rats at a puddle, we stared out the windows and stuck our hands into the rain. Three Flinns even dashed outside to drench themselves in the deluge. With more black clouds on the horizon, our hike to the mountains had to be canceled.

Not to be deterred, the Flinns found a way to make the afternoon memorable. I looked around after lunch, frustrated by the rain. What I saw lifted my spirits as a chaperone. Everyone was playing rain volleyball, reading, playing cards under the ramada, taking group pictures. I smiled, it was almost as if the rain had been a planned activity. If there is one thing this class does really well it is to make the most of any situation, together. Forget most, remember some, oh, but don't turn none away.

When the rain subsided an hour later, we walked the mile into town. Walking through the cobblestone streets, admiring the towering cliffs, the village was a destination unto itself. After the sky continued to clear a bit, about half of the students, myself, Anne Marie, and our two Romanian guides, Zoltan and Unige, decided to hike to a castle more accessible than the mountain top. A cool wind blowing, the mile to the trailhead passed quickly. As we began to ascend the gravel trail, our spirits were soaring. High up on the hill, we could see a silhouette of a crumbling castle. The sun peeked out from behind the clouds, pushing us onwards and upwards. We were soon sprinting up the ridgeline, surrounded by wildflowers of purple and gold. Reaching the first plateau, we exchanged high fives all around and a few hollers ripped out from our chests, ringing out across the verdant hills. On the next hill over, a herd of white, brown and black cattle ambled over the crest, as small as specks of brown sugar and salt and pepper.

After a breather, we decided to push on to the castle. We picked our way carefully down the steep slope, Galen munching on clover and leading the way with Zoltan. The next hill would be the toughest. Heaving and dripping with sweat, we scrambled up the rocks, wondering how in the world the original inhabitants made a daily routine of this slope. After a tiring 20 minutes we emerged onto the grassy crown. I put my hand against the stone wall, dusted with age but still standing for all the world to see. What a view. I breathed in deeply, and then shouted down to the rest of the group to cheer them on. One, and then two, and then three. Gradually, all in the group pulled themselves up to the castle, panting and sweating, but beaming. Everything is not enough, Nothing is too much to bear.

While only half the group hiked that day to the castle, we carried the spirits of the group with us to the top: the spirit of camaraderie, the spirit of challenges met, and the spirit of making days worth remembering. And while words can convey the events, and pictures can paint the scene, each of our individual memories of that day are a souvenir that can never be given away. All you keep is the getting there.

We hiked home slowly, soaking in every turn of the village and moment with each other. Stopping for a bathroom break halfway, I looked up to see a word strung up in lights across the road: “Gonduzo.” I asked Unige what the word meant. She said that is was difficult to translate, but means loosely ”letting your worries go” and was a common word for celebrations. I liked that and repeated the word again. Gond?z?.

As we walked the final stretch towards the cabins, we linked together, arm-in-arm. Compelled by the day and the night, we let our voices ring into the air, “We are the champions....” That's exactly how we felt at that moment: champions, conquerers. What's more, we were excited to be sharing the night as friends and travelers. We were all smiling because, after a long hike, nothing could have been a better sight than to be greeted by our fellow travelers and the warm glow of a cafeteria where the accommodation staff had insisted on waiting for us to serve us up heaping servings of Romanian cabbage and chicken.

On the Road 2010: Day Seventeen

Travel Dispatches — 2010-06-12

Anne Marie Norgren ('06)

Saturday, June 12th was an extremely busy day. It was physically exhausting, as we walked around the city of Targu Mures while the temperature was over 100 degrees and very humid. It was also mentally exhausting, as we went to three lectures and a tour and discussed some important and weighty issues in Romania. However, while exhausting, the day was satisfying, as it provided us with more perspectives and viewpoints on the history, culture, and social issues in Romania.

One of the recurring themes of this trip is the obvious tension between different ethnic groups in Romania, including Romanians, ethnic Hungarians, and Roma people. We have attended numerous lectures that discuss these issues, and the latest was a lecture on minority issues given by Maria Korek, former Project Manager for a Romanian organization dealing with inter-ethnic relations. In her lecture, Ms. Korek explained the tensions between Romanians and ethnic Hungarians living in Romania. Before the 1920 Trianon Treaty, much of what is now Romania belonged to Hungary. Therefore, after the treaty, much of Hungary became part of Romania, even though it was home to an extremely large population of Hungarians.

Still today, millions of Hungarians live within Transylvania in Romania. For the most part, they have fought to keep their language and culture alive. In fact, in Transylvania, an ethnic Hungarian child can go to a Hungarian language school or even live in an entirely Hungarian-language town. The reason for the tensions between Romanians and ethnic Hungarians come from the fact that Romania has attempted to get Hungarians to assimilate, while Hungarians have fought to live as Hungarians in the lands that their families have lived in for generations. Ethnic Hungarians living in Transylvania are stuck in between two identities: they are not Romanian, but they are not allowed to be entirely Hungarian either. Therefore, they are caught somewhere in between, and there are still many unresolved issues as a result of this century-long tension.

To give a more tangible example, I will provide a metaphor. Imagine that next year the US signs a treaty where (somehow) Arizona becomes part of Mexico. If Mexico acted as Romania did when this happened in 1920, Mexico would then force Arizonans to speak Spanish, teach their kids Mexican history, and follow Mexican norms. Then Arizonans would rise up, gain influence, and establish society of their own—an English-speaking community within Mexico. In response to this, people would ask Arizonans, “Why don't you just move to the US?” And Arizonans would reply, “We didn't move to Mexico. Mexico moved to us.” That is essentially what happened (and is happening) in Transylvania. Just imagine the tensions that causes.

Unlike the Hungarian minority, which has power and influence in Romanian society, the Roma minority, which is probably close to two million people, has little to no influence in the larger society. The Roma, or Gypsies, are marginalized by society and live in extreme poverty. The unemployment rate is 90% among the Roma, which illustrates how little this minority has been able to integrate into society. The strong prejudices against the Roma by Romanians and Hungarians alike further pushes them to the fringes of society, and their situation does not seem to be improving. Ms. Korek pointed out that a change in mentality of the majority is required before the Roma will ever be able to get out of their current dire situation. But only time will tell what form this “change” will take.

After the lecture on minority issues, we attended a lecture on social issues, given by an employee of the Alpha Transylvania Foundation, an NGO devoted to increasing life opportunities for disabled persons within Romania (unfortunately, I was not able to get the lecturer's name). The most striking part of this lecture was the discussion about civil society in Romania, which was a communist country where the nonprofit sector did not exist until after 1989.

Our speaker discussed how nonprofits are forming in order to “fill in the gaps” in social services that government and for-profit agencies cannot address. Yet these new nonprofits still have to fight to be heard by the Romanian government. For example, the Alpha Transylvania Foundation applied for a government grant to run their daycare center, and the government agreed to the grant and signed a contract to give them the funding. However, when it came down to it, the government did not come through, and the foundation was forced to close down the center for a week while lobbying for the funds that were promised to them by the state.

Therefore, as much as the third sector is gaining more weight in the previously-communist state of Romania, it still has a long way to go to be accepted, influential, and supported by the government and by the general public. However, this sector has had some major achievements, and unlike many of our lectures in Romania, this lecture provided an extreme sense of hope. The speaker was optimistic about the possibilities for her foundation and for the entire nonprofit sector in the future, and pointed out that the general public, including the media, is starting to understand and offer to help. She made clear that the nonprofit sector is built using the freedom that Romanians gained after the fall of communism in 1989. And she had hope for the future of the sector, claiming that NGOs are playing an increasingly larger role in Romanian society.

Now that I am reliving the day of June 12th, I feel even more lucky to be hearing multiple different viewpoints on the major issues in Romanian society. In one way, Romania is a very old society, with traditions and culture from the Roman Empire and earlier. Yet in another way, Romania is a very new society, which underwent major transitions in the 20th century that are still affecting everyday life. Who knows what the future will hold?

On the Road 2010: Day Sixteen

Travel Dispatches — 2010-06-11

Lauren Johnston ('09)

Today we ended our homestays in Homorodszentpeter, a small Unitarian Hungarian “willage” in Transylvania, Romania. Probably the only words to describe this little niche of the world are “freaking awesome.” To put it a little more eloquently, this tiny village is an idyllic paradise, where each inch of architecture and décor and cuisine is marked by flawless craftsmanship and every cow knows how to get home on its own. The people take pride in their traditions, history, and handiwork.

After a pleasant morning of homemade breakfast and strolls around the hills and the dairy, we sat down with Reverend Kinga to talk about the issues that this village faces. She began with the formidable assertion that, “At some point, we must decide what we want really out of life,” Packed in this simple sentence are the deepest questions of morality and values that challenge not only Kinga’s evolving community but our own lives as well; especially at this junction after our first year away from home. Considering that our lives are so privileged with freedoms and essentially sheltered experiences, one can only imagine the depth of tackling this challenge in the midst of such harsh cultural and moral clashes.

With Romania’s recent entry into the EU, traditional communities have in some areas been forced to adopt the values and practices of Europe. Over the past 80 years, the small ethnic strongholds have had to cope with regime changes from monarchy, to communism, to a fledgling democracy. The sheer rapidity and juxtaposition of such richly opposing governments is enough to overwhelm any society that has succeeded in remaining rooted to its practices and morals for hundreds of years. The rhythm of life in the traditional cultural strongholds like Homorodszentpeter has been interrupted as harshly as a stanza from a Bela Bartok composition. While modernization has brought communities together through technology and education, Rev. Kinga pointed out that the most notable changes are pessimistic sentiments towards integration and the loss of cultural and economic stability. Cultural phenomena in the form of television and unsavory vice have overturned the community life as well.

With the constant air of change, Reverend Kinga holds to the wish that her congregation will remain faithful and devoted to the simple joys of an honest life. She hopes that her children will choose to stay in the village and work as farmers. As Matt Rolland mused, for a woman so educated and worldly, this is a rather unique sentiment. I interpreted this dream as a small blessing of hope that the next generation will come to understand where true happiness lies, and pursue a life centered around a deeper peace with the world. As we said our goodbyes in the village, Kinga charged us to find a balance between tradition and progress, and to always have hope that we may find happiness.

As program turns 25, newest Flinn Scholars choose Arizona universities

Flinn Scholars — 2010-05-17

Twenty of Arizona's most accomplished high-school seniors have been announced as recipients of the Flinn Scholarship, one of the most competitive and prestigious undergraduate awards in the nation. The students, who constitute the 25th class of Flinn Scholars, will attend one of Arizona's three public universities with a truly comprehensive package of support that includes tuition, room and board, personal mentorship by top faculty, and funding for international study and research. The Scholarship is worth more than $54,000--on top of the value of tuition.

Graduating Flinn Scholars set off on new adventures

Flinn Scholars — 2010-05-15

The community of Flinn Scholar alumni will exceed 380 as of Sunday evening, when 16 graduates will be honored at the Flinn Scholars Program's annual Recognition Dinner at the Ritz-Carlton in Phoenix. The Recognition Dinner, where graduates will be joined by the newest class of Scholars, family members, university officials, and community leaders, will also begin a year-long celebration of the Scholars Program's 25th Anniversary. The first Flinn Scholars were selected in 1986.

Four students at both ASU, UA win Goldwater Scholarships

Flinn Scholars — 2010-04-15

A who's who of the nation's top universities couldn't accomplish it. But both Arizona State University and the University of Arizona did: Each university secured the maximum of four recipients of the 2010 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, the most prestigious undergraduate award in the nation for student in mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering who intend to pursue research careers. Among the winners was 2006 Flinn Scholar Beryl Jones.

Scholar Ben Strauber wins globally-competitive Gates award

Flinn Scholars — 2010-04-08

What should he do--stay in Arizona as a Flinn Scholar or go to Stanford University? Ben Strauber had a dilemma as a senior in high school, but he doesn't today. Last month, the 2005 Flinn Scholar received an offer from Stanford for full funding of a doctoral program. He has just one thing to do first: journey to England as a Gates Cambridge Scholar.

Flinn Scholarship recipients to be announced in May

Flinn Scholars — 2010-04-07

The application period for the 2010 Flinn Scholarship, one of the premier merit scholarships in the United States, is now closed. The 25th class of Flinn Scholars will be announced officially in mid-May.

Updates about the process will be posted on flinnscholars.org, as well as on Facebook and Twitter. To learn more about the Flinn Scholarship, check out The Deal, What it Takes, and Frequently Asked Questions.

Information sessions announced for 2011 Flinn Scholarship

Flinn Scholars — 2010-02-11

The Flinn Scholars Program will host a series of informational meetings for Arizona high-school students from late March through early April. The sessions, in Tucson, Phoenix, Flagstaff, Tempe, and Yuma (all at 6:30 pm) will discuss the 2011 scholarship. Application available August, 2010.