Every year an average of seven to nine Tufts students receive the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship, but this year has been a record breaker, with 13 students receiving the honor. Among the members of the select group is Gabriel Mozes, an economics major who will delve into economic developments in Romania.
Mozes has interest in Romania for a number of reasons. Some of it is rooted in the fact that his family is descended from the region. Both of his parents are from Romania and he speaks the language fluently.
The idea for his proposal came when he visited the country last July. He had just been studying economic theory in London for six months and he was starting to question the practicality of economics.
However, "when I was able to see the currency devaluation, economic development, and foreign direct investment first hand [in Romania], I felt more accomplished in my major," he said.
As Mozes explained, 1999 marks the tenth anniversary of the fall of communism in Romania. For the past ten years, the Romanian government has been trying to "implement massive economic reform to stabilize the economy," Mozes said. But in the course of this action, little has been done to document or probe deeper into these major developments. "There has not been too much literature documenting the successes or short-comings of the program," Mozes said.
Disconcerted, Mozes decided that he would propose that a case study be done to evaluate the reform program and to study policy. Mozes' study will take place in Transylvania, the western region of Romania. He will stay in Cluj, which "is the biggest city in the region, and relative to big cities it is relatively small. It's about the size of Somerville," he said.
The town has many attractive features, including "relative size, university resources, and recent economic development." It is also, as Mozes stated, "a completely different society and environment."
Mozes sees great promise in the research he will conduct thanks to the $15,000 to $20,000 grant he will receive. "I want it to be applied to US policy and policy makers who are researching this kind of information." Right now, Mozes hopes that his research will specifically be applied to US foreign policy direct investment.
Mozes came up with his proposal in five minutes, but he almost missed his chance to submit it, as he knew little about the scholarship.
While the federal government and various foreign countries found Mozes qualified for a scholarship of this magnitude, Tufts did not; they failed to inform Mozes of the opportunity to apply.
"During the summertime, letters are sent out to seniors with high GPAs," Mozes said, "but I didn't get a letter because I was not part of that list." Thus, because Mozes was ousted from the qualified pool, he was left in the dark until a friend told him about the scholarship.
It was fortunate that Mozes thought of his proposal quickly because he only had two weeks to write it. "I had just taken my L-SATs and I decided that in case I didn't do well I should apply."
Mozes believes that the there should not be a bias against students whose grade point averages are not in the upper echelon. "Everyone should be encouraged to apply," Mozes said.
Mozes plans to attend law school following his year of intense research. He is certain that his acquisition of this scholarship will "open doors on my return."
The Fulbright Scholarship was established in 1946 to increase mutual understanding between the US and other countries. It has been described as a step towards building an alternative to armed conflict. It is one of the most competitive academic scholarships in the world.
The other 12 Tufts students will all venture to different countries. For example, David Megathlin will study the effects of alcohol on twins in Finland. Sarah Ingmanson will head off to Japan to study the effects of the Asian financial crisis on that society. Other students will do equally interesting work.
At this point, there is the possibly that more students could be accepted to the program, but Mozes believes that the showing thus far is very satisfactory. He believes that this increase in acceptances could be attributed to the increase in the number of Tufts students studying abroad.
