Erik B. Young, M.D. International Travel-Study Awards
Dr. Erik B. Young ('74) is a devoted alumnus of the University of Maryland, member of the College Park Foundation Board of Trustees, and President of the Medical Center Development Corporation. In 2006, Dr. Young created a new program to support international travel and/or study for a group of undergraduates each year through the Erik B. Young, M.D. International Travel-Study Awards. The purpose of the program is to give deserving undergraduate students the opportunity to broaden their international horizons while they hone their academic skills. During the first year, seven students were selected to receive $2,000 awards to fund their international experiences. More information on applying for the 2008 Young Award Selection process will be available at www.studentaffairs.umd.edu after November 1, 2007. Selections are made in Spring 2008 for travel next summer or the 2008-2009 academic year.
We have profiled two of the winners and their extraordinary experiences.
Andy Parrish
Andy Parrish is a Math and Computer Science major in the College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. Andy traveled to Budapest, Hungary in Fall 2006 where he studied mathematics at a Hungarian university. His experience resulted in the opportunity to participate in the International Mathematics Competition in Bulgaria.
“Hungarian students are taught a different way to think about math problems. It is an entirely different mindset there. With my exposure to both American and Hungarian styles of math education, I feel that I am much better suited to approach whatever mathematical challenges come my way than I could have been from an American education on its own.
“A typical undergraduate course covers topics understood ages ago. Geometry was well-understood by Euclid 2300 years ago. Newton tackled calculus 400 years ago. …Some math majors grow weary of being treated like history and philosophy majors – only learning about people who have long been dead. I can assure you that thought never crossed my mind last fall.
“One field I found particularly interesting is known as Ramsey Theory. The main focus is that, in a large enough system, patterns must exist... After learning about it in class, I sent an email to a professor at home to convince him to help me do research in the field. Although Ramsey Theory is not taught in any course at the University of Maryland, my study in Budapest has allowed me to write a 50-page-and-growing research paper on it, which my advisor says we might publish as a book. I am enjoying every minute of it, and cannot help but think of the boost it will give me when I begin applying to graduate schools.”
Erin Reddy
Erin Reddy is a Women’s Studies major in the College of Arts & Humanities. She traveled to India for the 2006-2007 academic year where she studied economics, history and Hindi at St. Stephen’s College in Delhi, India. She also worked with a group in Delhi called STOP (Stop Trafficking in Persons).
The following passages are from her journal, and are about her experience with a food vendor located outside her apartment building in North Delhi.
“The chai-wallah is my favorite worker at the dhaba. He was stone-faced for six-months until just recently. He now smiles at me every time I come. Huge smiles. Gentle smiles. He wears a Keralan-style dhoti with a shabby Oxford button-down, along with a huge fabric sheet wrapped clumsily but securely around his head. …He makes the best chai in all of India. He has a long, unkempt, salt and pepper beard. You can tell he likes to hide behind it. One day I want to ask him how many cups of chai he makes in a single day- probably enough to fill the Yamuna…
“The bells are ringing now; such a ruckus is required to wake up the sleeping gods in the temple. The same workers are here everyday without fail. The same huge cast-iron basins are filled with steaming milk (somehow it is always filled to the brim- no matter what time of day I come.) and you can see the bubbly foam, the cream clinging to sides of the gaping vat. The same man is always in the corner peeling potatoes for aloo gobhi and the manager or his brother is perpetually stationed behind the sweets counter, handling the money. There is the fry man, frying samosas and pakoras with a perfect flaky crust that no American housewife could ever duplicate. The aloo is mashed in huge pots with bare hands and raw fingernails kneading into the steaming mass.
“I am usually the only female here-but no one ever bothers me. Everyone in the area recognizes me and I am constantly greeted with “namastes” and waves of the hand. The guard at the metro, the auto-wallah who takes me to school everyday for no less than 25 rupees, Rita our cook, and the men at the dhaba. Their faces have become part of my daily imagery. I notice if something has changed in them-even the slightest alteration bothers me- makes me anxious. While everything around me feels chaotic, these few people have come to, in a sense, hold me together.”
