Three students chosen as inaugural winners of USC’s Africa fund


Silva Sevlian has always wanted to travel to Ethiopa, the country where her mother was born and raised. Now, with the help of USC’s new Africa Student Fund, Sevlian will have a chance to do just that.

Sevlian, who is in enrolled in the B.A./M.A. joint program in print journalism and public diplomacy, is one of the three inaugural winners of the grant, which sponsors travel and research in Africa. She will use the award to film a documentary about Ethiopian subculture.

The other winners, Emily Taymor, a freshman majoring in cinema-television production, and Daniel Alvarado, a senior majoring in art history, will visit Senegal and Mozambique, respectively.

The fund, which was announced in 2008, is an endowment that supports undergraduates who want to travel to Africa for study, research, service learning or internships. Recipients are given about $2,000 to cover travel expenses.

Adam Powell, the vice provost for globalization and the founder of the Africa Student Fund, said the discussion about expanding student travel started in fall 2007.

“After talking with faculty and students, the question started coming up. What are people doing? And what can we do in the provost’s office to be helpful?” he said.

Powell said there were opportunities for students to get research funding from various foundations, but that didn’t solve the issue of costly plane tickets.

“The piece that’s almost impossible to get is student travel,” he said. “The basic idea is to eliminate the price of the plane ticket. That’s what led to the funds.”

Powell and his wife made the initial contribution to start the fund, donating $100,000.

This year, the Africa Advisory Committee chose three recipients from 19 total applications. Powell said the decision was tough.

“What the committee found was that these students were somewhat unusual; they played to the strengths of USC, and they really showed how this trip would really complement and enhance their education,” he said.

Sevlian said the award means a lot to her for both personal and professional reasons. Her trip, she noted, will combine both her fields of study.

“It’s kind of a marriage between the two things I’m studying,” Sevlian said. “I’m applying what I’ve learned in print journalism, and the most important thing I think stood out was my multimedia skills.”

Sevlian also hopes to contribute her work to a good cause. She plans to compile a database for African scholars here at USC and provide information to the Institute for Armenian Studies.

Sevlian, who will be staying with family members in Ethiopia this summer, said the fund makes the entire trip possible.

“The Africa fund eliminates the cost of the plane ride and makes the gap between USC and Africa much smaller,” she said. “I envision a lot of personal growth on this trip. I am not only visiting but becoming part of the community and the documentation of it.”

Taymor said she was already planning on doing a project in Senegal when she came across the fund.

“We were looking for funding, and I came across this grant. It seemed like a great opportunity,” she said.

Taymor will be working on pre-production for her film, which will be about a girl who contracts HIV and is forced into an early arranged marriage, she said.

“The main idea is to help stop arranged marriages and the spread of HIV,” Taymor said. “I want to use this film as a mechanism for spreading awareness.”

She also plans to create a non-profit organization so that she can encourage USC students to support her project. “The film itself is just the first step,” Taymor said.

Taymor said the Africa fund is a catalyst for her long-term ambitions.

“The Africa fund helps me with the film project,” Taymor said, “But it is also the start of what I hope to do later in life. This is an opportunity not many people get to have.”

Alvarado is currently in Mozambique for a month, conducting research on the impact of Portuguese colonial urbanism and architecture; he began this project during a semester abroad in Brazil. Alvarado will use the money from the fund to continue his research in Mozambique.

“I would not have been able to execute this project without the Africa fund,” Alvarado wrote in an e-mail.

Applications for next year’s fund are due in November. To apply, a student must have a 3.5 grade point average as well as a faculty recommendation.

Although he sees room for growth, Powell said he was impressed with the variety of applications this year.

“We had almost every school represented in the applications,” said Powell.

Powell said this program has already emerged as a popular choice on campus.

“There is so much interest and so much activity in so many areas. Part of our job is to focus on what are the main things that can be most helpful to students,” Powell said. “The student fund has risen to the top as number one.”