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Loyola University Chicago Announces 2015-2016 Ricci Scholars

Loyola University Chicago Announces 2015-2016 Ricci Scholars

2015-2016 Ricci Scholars

Loyola University Chicago Announces
2015-2016 Ricci Scholars
Eight Loyola Students Awarded Prestigious Study-Abroad Scholarship

CHICAGO, February 18, 2015 — Loyola University Chicago has selected its 2015-2016 Ricci Scholars, students who will spend an academic year studying, conducting research, and traveling in Italy and China.

The Ricci Scholars program offers a scholarship to highly qualified students who spend their junior year at Loyola’s John Felice Rome Center and the Beijing Center for Chinese Studies. Students prepare research proposals and apply for the program as sophomores; conduct field research and travel as juniors; and complete their projects stateside as seniors. During their stays in Rome and Beijing, they will participate in regular classes, in addition to carrying out their Ricci Scholars projects.

Eight Loyola sophomores have been chosen as the 2015-2016 Ricci Scholars. The cohort includes: Angelo Canta, Mary Frank, Annik Lupieri, Emily Marogi, Frieda Rule, Hiba Sheikh, Roohi Singh, and Luis Vargas. Each of these scholars has performed at the highest levels of their class academically and has the support of a faculty mentor.

Launched in fall 2007, the Ricci Scholarship program is supported by the generous gift of a Loyola University Chicago donor. The scholarship covers round-trip travel, language tutorials, program seminars, research expenses, and study travel.

Unlike other international experiences, the Ricci Scholars program allows students to engage in two cultures within the span of nine months—Western European culture in Rome and East Asian culture in Beijing—and challenges them to integrate these experiences with their personal experiences interacting with culture in the United States.

Past areas of research have included examining legal and cultural barriers for foreign entrepreneurs when entering Italian and Chinese markets; how fundamental values of the two societies are communicated in children’s literature; air quality and pollution in Beijing and Rome; how urban planners have responded to challenges and opportunities of urban modernization during the last century.

2015-2016 Ricci Scholars:

‌‌Angelo Canta, a member of the honors program from River Vale, New Jersey, is majoring in visual communication and theology with a minor in Catholic studies. He has been awarded a scholarship to study contemporary Marian devotional practices in Rome and Beijing. Linking his major fields of interest, his project will explore the connection that Catholicism makes between the powerful and visceral experiences of art and faith by focusing on principle sites dedicated to the Virgin Mary and illuminating their importance to surrounding communities.

Mary Frank, an honors student and global and international studies major with minors in Asian languages and literature and philosophy from Lenexa, Kansas, has compiled a perfect academic record in her first year at Loyola. Her project examines the effect of tourism on the spiritual practices of pilgrims in Rome and Beijing. By comparing the spirituality of pilgrimage in the two cities, she will explore the ways in which the human attraction and experience of sacred places have been affected by commercial influences.

Annik Lupieri, a double major in biology and French and a member of the honors program, hails from Evanston, Illinois. For her cross cultural project, Annik is proposing a comparative examination of the experiences of cancer patients in Italy’s and China’s health care systems with a particular focus on the cultural factors that influence patients’ choices of treatments.

Emily Marogi, another member of the honors program from Skokie, Illinois, has a double major in biology and English. She will pursue a comparative study of women’s interpretation of femininity in Italy and China. Her research will combine an analysis of representations of femininity in popular media with interviews of students to understand their perceptions and the ways they negotiate their society’s standards of feminine beauty.

Frieda Rule hails from Norman, Oklahoma, and is pursuing a degree in psychology, while participating in the honors program. Inspired by her own experiences with chronic health conditions from childhood, Frieda will study how Italian and Chinese pediatricians, in their work with seriously ill children, see their roles both as caregivers and as members of their respective societies.

Hiba Sheikh, a political science major from Lincolnwood, Illinois, has compiled a near perfect academic record in her first year at Loyola. She will be pursuing a comparative examination of the shifting roles of mothers both in the home and in the work place in contemporary Rome and Beijing. In order to decipher current attitudes, she will pursue interviews with women from different generations, including working and non-working mothers, as well as female university students.

Roohi Singh, from Wildwood, Missouri, is pursuing a double major in economics and global and international studies. For her project, she will be comparing counterfeit or “knock off” apparel markets in Rome and Beijing as a means of better understanding the “informal economies” that continue to play an important role in both countries.

Luis Vargas, a transfer student who calls Chicago home, has developed a research proposal to examine the tactics and strategies health organizations in Rome and Beijing have developed to provide sex education to gay males between the ages of 15 and 25 in order to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS.

About Loyola University Chicago
Founded in 1870, Loyola University Chicago is one of the nation’s largest Jesuit, Catholic universities, with nearly 16,000 students. Nearly 10,000 undergraduates hailing from all 50 states and 82 countries call Loyola home. The University has four campuses: three in the greater Chicago area and one in Rome, Italy, as well as course locations in Beijing, China; Saigon-Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Vernon Hills, Illinois; and a Retreat and Ecology Campus in Woodstock, Illinois. The University features 11 schools and colleges, including the Quinlan School of Business, Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing, Stritch School of Medicine, College of Arts and Sciences, School of Communication, School of Continuing and Professional Studies, School of Education, School of Law, School of Social Work, and Graduate School. Consistently ranked a top national university by U.S. News & World Report, Loyola is also among a select group of universities recognized for community service and engagement by prestigious national organizations like the Carnegie Foundation and the Corporation for National and Community Service. To learn more about Loyola, visit LUC.edu, “like” us at Facebook.com/LoyolaChicago, or follow us on Twitter via @LoyolaChicago or @LoyolaNewsroom.