OXFORD,
Miss. – When Tupelo native Catherine Servati reached her senior year in
college, she thought her chance to study abroad had passed. But an
unexpected scholarship has this University of Mississippi English major
studying this semester at Queens University in Belfast, Northern
Ireland.
The scholarship, which covers all of Servati’s expenses
above her regular UM tuition, was awarded by the Southeastern
Conference Academic Consortium. SECAC is a voluntary alliance of the 12
SEC schools that provides funds to send one student from each member
school to Queens University.
While abroad, Servati is studying
Irish literature, theology and culture, which are new areas of study
for her. She says she is interested in using her knowledge of Southern
culture to compare religious tensions in Ireland, which have been as
severe as racial tensions once were in the American South.
During
their time at Queens, all SECAC scholars live in the dormitories, eat
on the student meal plans and use Belfast’s public transit system. The
estimated cost of the trip, including travel, housing, meals and
personal expenses would regularly be more than $20,000, said UM Study
Abroad Adviser Maury Breazeale.
Servati first heard about the
SECAC scholarship program in fall 2008 from an administrator in UM’s
Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, where she is enrolled.
“After I first heard about the scholarship, I kind of kept it in the back of my mind for a while,” she said. “I figured this was just too good an opportunity to not pursue.”
Servati will return to UM for the fall 2009 semester to finish her senior honors thesis, a paper examining Dave Egger’s “What Is the What,” a book regarded as a poignant blend of fiction and nonfiction that tells the life story of a young male Sudanese refugee. Her paper will apply the book’s themes to a group of Sudanese refuges who live in Jackson and are known as The Lost Boys. She first encountered this group of young men last summer when she was an intern with the Mississippi Teacher Corps. As part of her internship, she created a short documentary on the men’s journey from Sudan to their new life in Jackson.
“That internship really gave me a new found respect for teachers when I saw how hard their jobs really are,” she said.
After college, Servati is considering applying to law school and eventually working in education; however, she does not want to be an educator. She said she does not see herself creating lesson plans as much as writing legal briefs and working with the educational policymakers of tomorrow. Servati, who attended public schools in Tupelo, said her ideal vision is helping Mississippi become a place where quality education is not determined by birthright and geography.
“Catherine is a natural leader; she is one of those glue-type people,” said Benjamin Guest, program director for the Mississippi Teacher Corps. “She is just always positive and always bringing people together.”
For more information on UM’s Office of Study Abroad, go to http://www.outreach.olemiss.edu/study?abroad/ .