Two Pitt Honors College Seniors Win Humanity in Action Fellowships

PITTSBURGH--University of Pittsburgh Arts and Sciences Honors College seniors Amish J. Dave, majoring in neuroscience, biology, and history with a minor in chemistry, and Pedja Jurisic, majoring in politics and philosophy with minors in history and economics, have received 2006 Humanity in Action (HIA) fellowships from the Humanity in Action Foundation.

Fellows are selected based on academic achievement, evidence of leadership potential, interest in minority issues, and demonstrated commitment to human rights.

Dave, who will spend his time as an HIA fellow in Berlin, has served as both president and vice president of the Asian Students Alliance. He also is president of Alpha Epsilon Delta, the preprofessional sciences honors society. He plans to attend the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine to complete the M.D./M.P.H. degree.

As a member of Alpha Epsilon Delta, Dave designed and implemented the first freshman mentoring program for Pitt freshmen interested in careers in health and research sciences. He taught at the Blagoevgrad Children's Home in Bulgaria in 2003. A volunteer at UPMC South Side Hospital's Rehabilitation Unit, Dave also volunteered at Glen Oaks Hospital in Illinois and was a research volunteer at Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. He coauthored a clinical research study on HIV/AIDS screening in the ER.

Among his other honors are a National Merit Foundation Scholarship and a Department of Biological Sciences Hartman Scholarship. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Alpha Theta History Honors Society, and Tri-Beta Biological Sciences Honors Society.

Jurisic will work in Amsterdam under the HIA fellowship program. He is senior staff writer for Pitt Political Review Magazine and has written several articles, including "Bosnia: Ten Years After Dayton" and "Exploring the Rise of Islamic Extremism in Europe." A Bachelor of Philosophy degree candidate in the Honors College, Jurisic is completing a thesis, titled "Economic Decentralization and Its Impact on Ethnic Relations: The Unique Cases of Former Yugoslavia and Communist China."

Jurisic is a recipient of the Wilma Binder Zeder Memorial Scholarship for academic excellence. He won first prize in the Europe: East and West Undergraduate Research Symposium in 2005. Jurisic also did an independent research study, "The Role of Armies in Yugoslav Dissolution: Military Developments and Political Motives," with Pitt anthropology professor Robert Hayden.

A Jumpstart Program corps member, Jurisic helped to promote literacy in disadvantaged three to five year olds and also served as a volunteer at the Parental Stress Center mentoring underprivileged teens.

The HIA Foundation sponsors an integrated set of educational programs for university students and post-graduates in the United States, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, Central and Eastern Europe and, as of 2006, in France and Poland. Furthermore, HIA will start an American-based core program in New York and San Francisco in 2006.

Through the core education programs and internships, HIA works to fulfill its mission to engage student leaders in the study and work of human rights by engaging younger generations in histories of resistance and inspire them to fulfill their moral responsibilities to protect those in danger from institutionalized violations of minority rights and by strengthening the commitment of American and European university students to democratic values and fostering their knowledge of resistance to intolerance—past and present.

During the core programs in Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, the United States and Central and Eastern Europe, HIA focuses on three interrelated areas of historic and contemporary importance—examples of resistance to the Holocaust; the development of international human rights institutions and doctrines, through the establishment of new standards, rules, and procedures in the aftermath of World War II; and current minority issues and their relationship to human rights.

###

4/13/06/tmw