Global travel inspires Henkin Scholars

Tulane University senior Kate Elder is back on American soil after spending her summer at an archaeological dig in Peru. Out on the Tulane-affiliated dig, she helped excavate chullpas — an ancient style of above-ground stone tombs common in the Andean region — and uncovered pot shards, pieces of weapons, human remains and even tarantulas.

“The summer was a reaffirmation that I"m doing what I love,” said Elder, whose seven weeks at the Ancash Bioarchaeological Project in Huari, Peru, will serve as her honors thesis and influenced the anthropology major"s graduate school applications.

Elder was one of three students whose recent experiences were made possible by the Judith and Morris Henkin Memorial Travel Scholarship from Newcomb-Tulane College.

Jill Glazer, a 1985 Newcomb College alumna, and her husband, Avie Glazer, started the Henkin travel fund in memory of her parents. Jill and Avie Glazer are two of the most generous supporters of Tulane University. The Henkin Travel Scholarship is awarded to three students every year.

Awardee Kayla Bruce, a junior, did a two-month summer internship with a girls" health education program in Uganda. For the first part of the summer, she developed a sex education curriculum with a Ugandan community nurse to teach girls between 12 and 15 years old. Then she helped organize a music, dance and drama competition between seven schools, allowing the girls to do skits displaying what they had learned in the program.

“The summer was a reaffirmation that I'm doing what I love.”—Kate Elder, senior, a Henkin Scholar

“It was empowering to watch the girls take what they learned and teach their younger peers,” Bruce said. “This summer made me more interested in focusing on global women"s health and helped me understand it on a much deeper level.”

Also awarded a Henkin grant in the 2013-14 academic year was Haley Licon, a 2014 graduate, who travelled in October 2013 to the Latin American Congress of Parasitology Workshop in Ecuador.

Mary Sparacello is a communications specialist in the Office of Development Communications.