http://www.tufts.edu/development/news/2008/fletcherscholarship.html

http://fletcher.tufts.edu/admissions/scholarships.shtml

http://fletcher.tufts.edu/admissions/scholarships.shtml

http://fletcher.tufts.edu

http://fletcher.tufts.edu/mald/default.shtml

http://fletcher.tufts.edu/mald/default.shtml

http://fletcher.tufts.edu/faculty/bosworth/profile.asp

http://fletcher.tufts.edu/faculty/bosworth/profile.asp

http://www.transparency.org/

Tufts University - Index

Tufts University - Beyond Boundaries Newsletter Winter 2008 - Index

Overseers’
$ 0M Scholarship
Gift Is Boon to
Aspiring Diplomats
Serving with the United Nations peacekeeping
mission that oversaw Haiti’s presidential election
in 2006, Iris Abraham, F09, was inspired
by the scenes that greeted her on polling day.
“Thousands were standing in the burning heat
in the middle of the day to vote,” says Abraham, a selfdescribed
“great advocate of self-determination” who is
among this year’s inaugural class of Board of Overseers
Scholars at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
An aspiring international negotiator who was born in
the former East Germany, spent part of her childhood in
Algeria, and plans to add an eighth language—Arabic—
to the seven she already speaks, Abraham hopes for a
diplomatic career dedicated to resolving conflict and
building consensus. Thanks to a Board of Overseers
Scholarship, she will pursue that calling unhampered
by burdensome school-loan debt.
Winter 2008 News of the Campaign for Tufts
$20 million in gifts from members of the
Fletcher School’s Board of Overseers created the
scholarships awarded for the first time this year
to outstanding members of the incoming Master
of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD) class.
Thirty-three inaugural Board of Overseers Scholars
representing 11 countries were honored at a reception
in December hosted by Fletcher Dean Stephen
W. Bosworth.
“Our board of overseers has demonstrated that
philanthropy at Fletcher is both transformative and
real,” Bosworth offers. “These gifts have allowed
Fletcher to recruit more of the most talented minds
from around the world. After meeting each of these
Board Scholars, I can think of no better investment.”
Abraham says the scholarship covers roughly
half her tuition for the two-year MALD program.
“Without the scholarship, I would have faced a debt
of about $40,000,” she offers. Now she expects her
debt on graduation to be less than a quarter of that.
A fellow Board Scholar, Regina Wilson, F09,
who worked in London for the anti-corruption group
Transparency International, described her joy at
receiving the award that made it possible for her to
attend the Fletcher School.
“I was working for a nonprofit, and it’s called
‘nonprofit’ for a reason,” Wilson notes, with a smile.
“I realized I needed to go back to school to learn
more about the issues I cared about and to make a
difference in the world. But there was no way I could
go to grad school on a nonprofit salary without some
sort of financial aid.”
Fletcher had been her top choice, for the diversity of
its student body, the practical experience of its faculty, and
its interdisciplinary focus, the Philadelphia native said.
“When I opened the package and learned of the scholarship,
I was so thrilled,” she recalls. “I said, ‘Oh my gosh,
I can’t believe it! I’ll be able to go to Fletcher!’”
Thanks to a Board of Overseers Scholarship,
Iris Abraham, F09 (left), will pursue a diplomatic
career in conflict resolution without the burden
of a heavy school-loan debt.
“I realized I needed
to go back to school
to learn more about
the issues I cared
about and to make a
difference in the world.
But there was no way
I could go to grad
school on a nonprofit
salary without some
sort of financial aid.”
—Regina Wilson, F09
Board of Overseers
Scholar (above)
BEYOND BOUNDARIES