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Carmen Gauthier, a chemistry professor, has become the second Florida Southern College faculty member named a Fulbright Scholar. The honor will let her teach in her home country of Peru this fall.
One of two Fulbright scholars who will be working in Peru, she will teach from August to January at her alma mater, the Catholic University of Peru, an institution in Lima with about 25,000 students.
Gauthier, an FSC faculty member since 1999, is excited by the Fulbright mission to increase understanding between nations and “to have the opportunity to go back to develop country-to-country relationships, political situations, in addition, to go back to my birth country.”
[box]Correction: This story originally said Gauthier was the first FSC faculty member named a Fulbright Scholar. We have since learned that John Griffis received two Fulbright grants while on the FSC horticulture faculty. [/box]
Besides teaching in her hometown, Gauthier is looking forward to seeing the country’s new president, who will take office on July 28. She is also eager to see her favorite Peruvian tenor, Juan Diego Florez, and to eat some fresh seafood from the Pacific Ocean.
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Her civic involvement in the U.S. has included running science fairs and a Girl Scouts science camp. Gauthier said she wants to “let girls feel like it’s OK to be nerds.”
Brad Hollingshead, dean of the School of Arts & Sciences, said this is a great achievement for Gauthier. “It is a testimony to her distinguished career as a researcher and teacher, as well as her commitment to growing continually as an educator,” Hollingshead said. “We know that she will be a terrific ambassador for the college and the United States during her time as a Fulbright Scholar.”
FSC PresidentAnne Kerr said the Fulbright is an award well-earned. “Dr. Gauthier is a brilliant chemist and a beloved teacher. On behalf of the faculty and administration at Florida Southern, I congratulate her and know that her research will be an asset in the field of metal-organic materials science.”
The Fulbright Program is “the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government. It is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries,” according to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the State Department, which administers the program.
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