University Park

Ardeth and Norman Frisbey International Student Award winners named

Penn State's University Office of Global Programs (UOGP) has announced the recipients of this year's Ardeth and Norman Frisbey International Student Awards. Established in the early 1990s by Ardeth Frisbey, who was at the time associate director of the (then-named) International Students Office, these awards recognize exemplary contributions to international understanding by full-time graduate and undergraduate international students. The award honors an undergraduate international student, a graduate international student, and an international student leader. Each award recipient receives a scholarship.

The 2011 award winners include:

Jinghao Lu, undergraduate Schreyer honors scholar studying economics and sociology who is also concurrently pursuing a masters of international affairs. A Chinese native, Lu studied abroad in Ghana in the fall of 2009 and wrote his honors thesis on "The Relationship Between Chinese Immigrants and Ghanaians in Accra, Ghana." As the 2010-11 president of the International Student Council, he served as an advocate for the international student population. He has worked to integrate international students into major student organizations such as the University Park Undergraduate Association and the Off Campus Student Union and has also made international students more visible in town-gown relations through his State College Borough summer internship with Mayor Elizabeth Goreham.

Okhtay Azarmanesh, doctoral candidate from Iran studying electrical engineering, has been the secretary of the Iranian Student Association, secretary and president of the European Student Club, and social chair and president of the International Friendship House (IFH). He was instrumental in creating a support group for newly-arrived Iranian students at Penn State, drafting an informative pre-arrival document and organizing volunteers to offer post-arrival assistance. As president of IFH (a unique housing opportunity for students of various nationalities), he worked to preserve the diversity of the house and established frequent events (international dinners, movie nights, slide presentations, etc.) to promote intercultural discussion and understanding.

Hernan Bejarano, doctoral candidate from Argentina studying agricultural, environmental and regional economics, is a Latin American Environmental Economic grant holder and an International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics pre doctoral fellow. He is a founding member and past president of the Latin American Graduate Student Association, which brings together Penn State Latin American students from different countries, backgrounds and academic programs. Bejarano is also an active member of the Latin American Field Experiment Network, which promotes the use of field experiments as a methodology for study and in Latin American economies to remedy economic and social problems.

Last Updated April 26, 2011

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