Supporting student research, internships, and study abroad has been a key mission of the Program in International and Comparative Studies (PICS) since its inception. This year PICS helped fund over 90 students for study, internship, or research abroad. We want to thank our donors for generous support that allowed us to award these student fellowships: Ms. Amy Rose, Mr. and Mrs. William Siegel, Andrea and David Scott, Mr. and Mrs. George Tanasijevich, Dr. and Mrs. Ken Kollman, and the many others who have given generously to support these students’ experiences. 

This year we are glad to announce that, after a competitive selection process,  PICS awarded 59 study abroad fellowships, 20 summer internship and research grants, two Amy Rose Silverman Fellowships, four Mr. and Mrs. William Siegel’s Longwoods Fellowships, and three Andrea and David Scott’s Arctic Fellowships. For the second time this summer, PICS, in collaboration with the Donia Human Rights Center (DHRC), and with Hardy Vieux, Legal Director of Human Rights First, will place an International Studies majoring student in an internship with Human Rights First in Washington DC. This summer, Human Rights First Fellow Vivian Righter will intern with Melissa Hooper, Director of the Human Rights and Civil Society unit at Human Rights First. In another continuing partnership, the International Human Rights Fellowship internship, again with the Donia Human Rights Center (DHRC) and with D.C.-based international human-rights law firm, Perseus Strategies, and its managing director and world renowned human-rights lawyer, Jared Genser, was awarded this year to International Studies major Hannah Pierce. We are also excited to report that our graduate and the 2018 International Human Rights fellow, Skylar Gleason, will join Jared Genser and Perseus Strategies as a full time staff member this year. Finally, for the first time this summer, in collaboration with the DHRC and the U-M Brazil Initiative, we placed two students on a summer internship at the anti- Slave Labor and Human Trafficking Clinic in Belo Horizonte Minas Gerais, Brazil to work with Judge Carol Henrique Haddad at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) School of Law. PICS students were also recognized in University of Michigan fellowship competitions: Claire Borchers, International Studies and Spanish major, Ross School of Business minor, is one of the 2019-2020 Bonderman Fellowship Recipients; and our 2019 graduate Chelsea Racelis, was a finalist for the Raoul Wallenberg Fellowship. 

This year our students will travel, research, intern, and study in 27 countries on five continents, and we can't wait to spotlight some of their journeys and reflections starting in September. 

Next year will be an exciting academic year for us as PICS' International Studies Major celebrates its 10th anniversary. On behalf of all of us at the University of Michigan's Program in International and Comparative Studies we wish you a wonderful summer.