The college will have representatives in China and Iceland next year as a graduating senior and a full professor have received grants through the Fulbright program.

Veronica O'Keefe (Printmaking, Philosophy). Photo by Danielle Chery

Veronica O’Keefe ‘09 (Philosophy, Printmaking) has received the graduation gift of a lifetime when she was awarded a U.S. Student Fulbright grant to work on a photography project in northeast China.

“It gives me the opportunity to work on a project that I know I have the capacity to complete, but that I would never have been able to do on my own,” said O’Keefe. “I feel so fortunate to receive this award.”

Beginning in December, O’Keefe will photograph farms throughout the nation over the course of 10 months in order to compose a portrait of China’s farmers. Affiliated with Dalian University of Technology, she will use a medium-format film camera to capture the images.

“Veronica O’Keefe is one of the most outstanding students in the printmaking studio,” said Rimer Cardillo (Printmaking). “She freely moves from one media to another. She is a gifted artist, who is always very professional in completing art works from the original ideas to the end of the project. I know that she will do an excellent job in China.”

He added that there are plans for O’Keefe to display her Fulbright project in our school.

O’Keefe began learning Chinese in the college’s Asian Studies program with where she earned a minor. She is looking to increase her fluency in the language and has applied for a Critical Language Enhancement Award from the Fulbright Program. If she receives the award, she will be leaving for China in August.

O’Keefe, who has a background in documentary photography, said she spent about a year looking into and applying for the grant. She met with former Fulbright scholars, including Jonathan Schwartz (Political Science and International Relations) on campus, and worked with the Center for International Programs and the Institute for International Exchange in New York City.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program allows for individually designed study/research or an English Teaching Assistantship operates in more than 140 countries.

Sue Books (Secondary Education)

Meanwhile, Sue Books (Secondary Education) will be spending the fall 2009 semester in Iceland as part of the Fulbright Scholars Program. At the Iceland University of Education in Reykjavik, she will be lecturing and conducting a comparative study of school policies as they relate to immigrant students.

“At this point in my career, I am particularly grateful for the opportunity to learn from others, especially those outside the U.S.,” she said. “I am looking forward to teaching in Iceland, to visiting schools, and to learning about the educational system there.”

Books, who has taught at the college since 1993, plans to incorporate information she gathers while in Iceland into a course on comparative education in China, the United States, Afghanistan and now Iceland.

“Although we will miss her for the semester, the School of Education and I applaud Dr. Sue Books in receiving a Fulbright Award to study in the country of Iceland,” said Robert Michael, dean of the School of Education.

Books is the 16th New Paltz professor to receive a Fulbright Scholar Award in the last 24 years.

The Fulbright Scholars Program provides U.S. faculty, administrators and professionals with grants to lecture, conduct research in a wide variety of academic and professional fields, or to participate in seminars.

Public Affairs intern Danielle Chery ‘09 (Journalism) contributed to this article.