[433] MTSU Student Receives Full Year Funding For Study In India

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 23, 2010
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

MTSU STUDENT RECEIVES FULL YEAR FUNDING FOR STUDY IN INDIA
Murfreesboro Resident Prepares for Intense Immersion in Urdu Language, Culture

(MURFREESBORO) – After living in Thailand for nine months, in Morocco for four months and in India all last summer, you might think Aaron Shew would want to stay home for awhile. You would be wrong.
The MTSU junior from Murfreesboro will depart for Turkey around May 14 for study experiences that will enhance not only his education but his prestige and his portfolio. Shew, a double major in plant and soil science and international-relations, will join students from other institutions in a conflict resolution course in Cyprus and Turkey at his own expense. Through June 9, Shew will question government diplomats on best practices for negotiating solutions to thorny issues between countries.
From there, Shew will head back to Lucknow, India, where he studied in the summer of 2009 under a Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) from the U.S. Department of State, for extensive instruction in the Urdu language. His summer studies will be funded with another CLS. The 2010-2011 academic year is covered under a fully endowed fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS). Lucknow is a city of about three million people situated in Uttar Pradesh, one of the most impoverished and illiterate regions of India, says Shew.
“They were the first people of India to rise up against British colonialism in 1857, and you get this real air in the city that they’re very proud of that,” notes Shew. During his stay in Lucknow last summer, he noticed that parts of the city were very traditional and other parts were very progressive. “You can walk down the street and see veiled women, and you can walk down the street and see sleeveless shirts,” Shew says. Shew says he would prefer to live with an Indian family during the summer and transfer to an off-campus apartment for the academic year. Last summer, Shew lived in an apartment with two other American students, one of Indian descent and the other of Pakistani descent. “We had a lot of good discussions because we’re all from very different backgrounds,” says Shew. “It’s funny because the Indian was a Shiite Muslim; the Pakistani was a Sunni Muslim; and I come from a Southern Baptist background.”


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Shew says his summer 2009 classes were the equivalent of one year of university study. By the time he finishes the next academic year, he will have completed the equivalent of four years’ worth of instruction in Urdu, which Shew describes as sort of a combination of Arabic and Hindi.
“It’s about 20 hours in class every week and another 15-25 hours of homework a week,” says Shew. “So it’s a full-time job.”
Headquartered at the University of Chicago, AIIS “is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge about India and the promotion of intellectual engagement with India in American colleges and universities,” according to www.indiastudies.org. AIIS allocates approximately 35 AIIS fellowships each year with funding from various agencies.
Shew says he will stay in contact with his family and friends during the long separation through e-mail and Skype. However, he says he’s inclined to live overseas continually after graduate school, whether he ultimately chooses a career in development, intelligence or diplomacy. “My overall goal, I would say, is to serve humanity, whether I’m advising policy or I’m doing agricultural development or something of the sort,” Shew says. “I’d like to become a utilitarian in the sense that I’d like to achieve the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people.”

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ATTENTION, MEDIA: For color jpegs of Aaron Shew in India, contact Gina Logue in the MTSU Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu.



With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.