Students in the News

Roxana Norouzi

Roxana Norouzi Named 2010 Bonderman Travel Fellow
Each year, seven UW undergraduate students and seven graduate students are awarded Bonderman Travel Fellowships worth $20,000 each. Each student travels individually for eight months, to at least six countries in at least two regions of the world. Their charge: to learn, explore and grow.

Roxana Sara Norouzi, MSW '10, is one of the seven graduate students awarded a 2010 fellowship. She will travel to the Middle East, East Africa and Latin America, regions of the world that have undergone socio-political and economic turmoil instigating migration trends. As an advocate for immigrant rights, Roxana spent many years as a housing advocate for immigrant families in crisis. She has volunteered for a women’s empowerment microfinance organization in rural India and has researched immigrant youth’s experiences of racism in public schools.

"My journey will be framed by my work with vulnerable populations, utilizing relationship building and human connection as a way to cultivate healing and growth, both for myself and those I meet during my travels," she said. "I hope to honor the people I meet on my journey by folding their stories into my future life, career, understanding of the world and who I am as a person."

Chami Arachchi

Chami Arachchi Earns Scholarship, Fellowship & Board Position
MSW student Chami Arachchi has been selected by the Washington Chapter of the Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care to receive its annual scholarship. She will also be the student representative on the chapter’s board of directors for the year, consulting on new programs and initiatives. The Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care promotes availability, accessibility, coordination and effectiveness of health care, addressing the psychosocial components of health and illness.

In addition, Chami recently received the 2010-11 Martha H. Duggan Fellowship Research grant to conduct her thesis research project, "Silent Voices: Racial Minority Clinicians in Mental Health Counseling." The Duggan Fellowship, awarded annually by the UW’s Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, supports graduate students working in the field of caring labor.

Chami has been involved in multiple international research projects, including work in Sri Lanka, Ecuador, West Bengal and New Delhi, India. In the future, she plans to work in the area of veterans’ health.