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Karla Buru is one of five Fulbright Scholars from USC; her assignment will take her to Romania
July 12, 2011
Karla Buru, a student in the Arnold School's
MSW/MPH program, has been named a
Fulbright Scholar and will study in Romania.
Arnold School of Public Health graduate student Karla Buru believed the odds were not good when she applied for a Fulbright Scholarship and asked if she could work and study in Romania.
"The selection committee doesn't like it when you ask to go to a country where you've been before," said Buru, who spent 2007 - 2009 as a Peace Corps volunteer in the east European republic.
But fate smiled on Buru, and she will return in October to Romania, where she will conduct research, study and serve as an English teaching assistant. She is among five 2011 Fulbright Scholars selected from the University of South Carolina.
Buru has been assigned to work in the Jiu Valley, Romania's principal coal mining region where many mines were closed years ago with the collapse of communism. She describes the area as "similar to parts of West Virginia where there is a lot of poverty."
Her task in the Jiu Valley will be to explore cross-cultural collaborations to understand the relationships between foreign volunteers and Romanian non-governmental organizations. The research findings will be used to create a Maymester course in cross-cultural practices for Romanian and American social work students and serve as a model for volunteer organizations in other countries, she said.
Ultimately, Buru wants to conduct research and educate others on cross-cultural social work and public health collaborations.
Dr. Ken Watkins, graduate director in the Arnold School's Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, described Buru as "one of our best students and an outstanding person."
"She has a genuine interest in making a positive difference in the lives of other people," he said. "This is evident in her work and volunteer experiences, and in the way she is integrating the dual MSW/MPH degree program with her career path. We are very fortunate to have students like Karla involved in our program."
Buru said she will return to USC in June 2012 to finish work on her dual-degree program. In 2006, she graduated magna cum laude from Carolina with a bachelor's degree in journalism and mass communications.
A quality assurance graduate assistant at USC's Student Health Services, Buru volunteers with the Catholic Diocese of Charleston Youth Ministry programs and is the director of the Young Ladies Retreat for high school girls. An active member of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of South Carolina, she is serving as the Peace Corps 50th Anniversary chairperson.
