Four graduating UMich seniors were notified last month of their selection as Bonderman Fellows, the prestigious program at U-M that has already attracted two cohorts of talented, innovative, ambitious scholars eager to experience and think deeply about intercultural realities around the globe. The Center for Global and Intercultural Study is delighted to announce that Kepriah Davis, Scott Haber, Dillon Kim, and Mackenzie McIntyre are the 2016–17 Bonderman Fellows. See below for further information about each of these remarkable students.

The Bonderman Fellowship offers graduating LSA seniors $20,000 to travel the world. They must travel to six countries in two regions over the course of eight months and are expected to immerse themselves in independent and enriching explorations. Bonderman Fellows engage with cultures, people, and areas of the world with which they are not familiar, providing them the opportunity to develop entirely new perspectives.

U-M is one of only two schools—along with the University of Washington—to offer the Bonderman award. David Bonderman traveled internationally as a Sheldon Fellow after graduating from Harvard Law School in the 1960s, and that experience shaped the rest of his life. He created the Bonderman Travel Fellowship in 1995 to provide students with a similar opportunity. Fellows make their own travel itineraries and, because this is meant to be an individual experience, cannot engage in formal study at a foreign university, conduct formal research, or travel with a guest or organized group.

Kepriah Davis, a Psychology major from Detroit, says her curiosity about the world led her to this opportunity. “I aim to explore Blackness—mine and that of others—with hopes of understanding how Blackness is perceived, treated, celebrated, and culturally realized outside the US.”

Scott Haber, a double major in Cell and Molecular Biology and Biomedical Engineering from West Bloomfield, has always wanted to travel the world alone, especially to non-westernized regions. “I have a passion for learning new fields of study, meeting new people, and learning different ways of living. I know that nothing can provide me a chance for physical, mental, personal, and spiritual growth like traveling the world as a Bonderman Fellow."

Dillon Kim, a Sociology major from Ann Arbor, hopes to experience the world in new ways and find new lenses of seeing the world and himself. “Although at heart I’m a poet and a cook, my time here at U-M has been committed to working with young people, particularly youth of color, and developing skills in social-scientific research.”

Mackenzie McIntyre, an International Studies major from O’Fallon, Illinois, spent her last year as a student combining her passion and experience for service-learning and social justice work with her life-sciences background, hoping to pursue human rights work in an international setting. “I’m mostly searching to connect with locals in commonplace settings to learn how different cultural and jurisprudence systems shape daily social spaces and interactions.”