[027]MTSU STUDENT TO STUDY WITH NOBEL PRIZE RECIPIENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 29, 2008
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

MTSU STUDENT TO STUDY WITH NOBEL PRIZE RECIPIENT First Kawahito Scholarship to Fund Education in Impoverished Lands

(MURFREESBORO) – MTSU student Steve Sibley will realize the educational experience of a lifetime this fall when he interns for 10 weeks in Bangladesh with the Grameen Bank, the financial institution founded by Nobel Peace Prize-winner and former MTSU professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus.
Sibley, a senior from Signal Mountain slated to graduate in December 2008, is the first recipient of a new financial stipend at MTSU—the Kawahito Scholarship for Experiential World Poverty Studies. The scholarship was created by and is named for Dr. Kiyoshi Kawahito, professor emeritus of economics and finance and former director of the university’s Japan-U.S. Program.
Kawahito says he created the scholarship to give students a chance to live in some of the most debilitating conditions on the planet, examine why these areas are impoverished and witness conscientious efforts to fight the poverty.
“You have to jump into the midst of poverty and really observe and feel how poor people live and struggle,” he says.
However, this experience is not for those who are faint of heart or shallow of soul. Kawahito says poverty in many parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America is utterly unlike the quality of life of Americans who are considered poor.
“They [would be] mostly middle-income class or higher [in the] poorer regions of the world,” he says. “They (Americans) have a place to stay which is not leaking or rat-infested. There’s even running water and a toilet, you know.”
Dr. Richard Hannah, Kawahito’s fellow economics professor, says Kawahito’s approach to educating students about the world outside their native country is the correct one.
“Whether primary research, applying economic learning out of one’s context of western comforts of the mind, or searching for alternatives of conventional thought, Dr. Kawahito is straight on in his thoughts that students should be applying themselves in the emerging world,” Hannah wrote in a fundraising letter.
Yunus was an assistant professor of economics at MTSU from 1969 to 1972. Since 1976, he has devoted his life to helping his country overcome its underdeveloped economy through microcredit, the practice of lending money to people without any collateral or credit history in order to help them invest in their own futures. He started with a loan of $27 to a group of 42 people who wanted to buy weaving stools. They repaid both principal and interest in a short period of time. Grameen’s overall default rate is only about 2 percent.
Upon granting the Nobel Prize to Yunus and Grameen Bank in 2006, the Nobel committee stated, “for their efforts to create social and economic development from below. Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Microcredit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights.” In particular, empowerment of women in a traditional society is a remarkable feature of microlending.
Sibley, whose experience as a world traveler is limited to two nights in Mexico as part of a cruise, says he is thrilled and grateful to be going to Bangladesh.
“I’m actually excited to be able to use finance to help people rather than make money for myself,” Sibley says. “I think that will be a great opportunity.”
The business finance major, who will turn 27 years old on Aug. 10, has taken a circuitous route to his heart’s desire. He left McCallie School, a well-known Chattanooga prep school, after his junior year to major in film at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. He left Hampshire after only a semester to pursue a career in music and recording engineering. At age 23, he decided neither film nor music was the right profession, but he enrolled in MTSU so he could stay close to the Nashville music scene.
Sibley says he thinks he will spend some time in the main bank in Dhaka, but he also anticipates living for awhile with Bangladeshis in Dhaka and Chittagong.
“Dr. Kawahito doesn’t want me to live like royalty,” Sibley says. “He wants me to experience poverty. That’s the idea of the Kawahito Scholarship. He wants me to look at water coming out of the tap and think ‘I can’t drink this.’”
The scholarship fund will provide Sibley with $2,000 for his round-trip air fare. The Department of Economics and Finance and the Jennings A. Jones College of Business will give him $1,000 and $750, respectively, to cover his living expenses.
To find out more about the Kawahito Scholarship for World Poverty Studies or to make a donation, contact Hannah at 615-898-2228 or rlhannah@mtsu.edu.

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ATTENTION, MEDIA: For jpeg photos of Steve Sibley and Dr. Kiyoshi Kawahito, contact Gina Logue in the MTSU Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu.