BIOS student selected as Phillips Ambassador for study in Singapore
| December 09, 2010 | |
Keith Funkhouser
William K. “Keith” Funkhouser III, a double major in biology and biostatistics at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, has been selected as one of eight UNC undergraduates who will study in Asia next spring as Phillips Ambassadors. Funkhouser, a graduate of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, in Durham, N.C., will be a student at the National University of Singapore with the Honors-University Scholars Exchange Program.
Phillips Ambassadors receive up to $7,500 for a semester or a year of study. The scholarships are awarded based on academic achievement and a commitment to activities, service and leadership roles in the classroom and community.
A key feature of the program is what is called the “Give Back,” or sharing of one’s experience in Asia with the Carolina community and the student’s hometown. In accepting the scholarship, students agree to submit articles about their studies in Asia for campus or hometown publications. They also give an outreach presentation about their experiences in Asia to a school in their hometown and other schools in North Carolina, introducing more young people to Asia.
Generating greater interest in Asia among UNC undergraduates was part of what motivated alumnus and entrepreneur Earl N. “Phil” Phillips Jr., who graduated from Carolina in 1962, to endow the program.Phillips has said he hopes his gift will encourage more students to spend their study abroad experiences focused on Asia, an increasingly vital region of the world. He has worked and traveled in Asia for more than 20 years and is a former U.S. ambassador to the eastern Caribbean. His long-term goal is for every Carolina undergraduate to have an international experience before they graduate.
To date, 108 UNC students have studied in Asia as Phillips Ambassadors since the program started in 2007. The eight new ambassadors bring the number to 116.
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UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu. |
