For the second year in a row, the bar has been raised on the number of Fulbright grants awarded to USC students.

To date, 13 USC scholars have been notified that they have won the grants for 2008-09. Grants are still being announced, and it is possible that more will be notified in the coming weeks. Fifty USC students applied for the honor, and 22 were selected as finalists – a 50 percent rise over last year’s number.

The grants are for one year of study and/or research that can be pursued in more than 140 countries. This year’s group, which includes graduating seniors, Ph.D. students and two 2007 graduates, will be traveling to Korea, Tunisia, Spain, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Brazil, Guatemala, China, Japan and Turkey.

University officials were thrilled with the news. USC Vice President for Student Affairs Michael Jackson said that the record number of scholars “is further evidence of just how much USC has improved under the leadership of President Steven B. Sample, Provost C. L. Max Nikias and our outstanding deans and faculty. The university is attracting incredibly bright and accomplished students who are taking full advantage of the university’s outstanding academic programs and vast array of co-curricular offerings.”

USC Annenberg School for Communication professor Bryce Nelson, who chairs the provost’s advisory committee on national and international graduate fellowships, called the university record “a great tribute to USC students” and noted that it came in the same year that USC senior Reed Doucette was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship.

Nelson said that Jackson and Noosha Malek, interim director of academic recognition programs, deserve credit for the increasing number of international scholarships won by students.

Malek said that efforts have increased over the past few years to publicize the Fulbright grant, which has resulted in a rising number of applicants. The rigorous Fulbright application review process spans an academic year, she noted, so when students receive grant offers “we are proud, congratulatory, grateful, elated and mostly excited to see their long-running efforts come to fruition. We are particularly pleased with the outcome of this year’s competition!”

This year’s Fulbright recipients, thus far, are:

Ainsley Breault, a senior majoring in communication with a minor in cinema-television. She is headed to New Zealand to explore the role of music in maintaining the Maori population at the forefront of New Zealand society. Breault will focus on two major Maori music events and present her results in two 30-minute rockumentary-style digital videos.

Marina Brenden, a senior majoring in English literature and political science. She will spend a year as an English teaching assistant in Korea and hopes to participate in organizations that focus on human rights, poverty and political accountability in South Korea.

Christen Farr ’07, who received her B.A. degree in international relations and French with a minor in Arabic and Middle East studies. She will travel to Tunisia, where she will study how employment in a foreign firm affects women’s outlooks concerning gender, family, community and employment outside of the home.

Olivia Gonzalez, who will complete her J.D. in law in May. Her undergraduate degree is in government and Spanish from Claremont McKenna. While working as an English teaching assistant in Spain, she plans to utilize her understanding of the American legal system in addition to her passion regarding immigration and cultural diversity as part of her classroom instruction.

Michelle Hawks, a senior who will receive her B.A. in preventive medicine with a minor in psychology. Hawks is headed to Nicaragua to explore the health literacy of women related to the screening and treatment of cervical cancer. She is particularly interested in discovering the various social networks women use as a means of support and gathering information in order to improve public health.

Micah Kawaguchi-Ailetcher, a senior communication major. She will spend a year in New Zealand exploring the relationship between social activism in Pacific Islander communities and Pacific Islander television in Auckland. She is particularly interested in examining social issues themes in Pacific Islander television shows.

Danielle Mascareñas, a senior majoring in biological sciences with a minor in Spanish. She will travel to Spain to study the micromechanics of the airway smooth muscle cell and its role in lung cancer and asthma. Mascareñas plans to use innovative techniques such as traction microscopy to further understand cytoskeletal dynamics.

Nisha Parekh ’07 has progressive B.A. and M.A. degrees in international relations with a minor in Spanish. Parekh will spend her year in Brazil examining the work card system utilized in the Brazilian labor market. She will focus on how the system serves as a means of discrimination, particularly against nonwhite Brazilians of low socioeconomic status.

Adriana Resendez, a senior majoring in American studies and ethnicity with a minor in psychology and law. She is headed to Guatemala to examine the role of the Historical Clarification Commission in restoring human rights for Mayan women after the civil war.

Meher Talib, a senior in international relations. She will travel to Tunisia to explore how the music scene reflects the local culture and Western influences. Talib is interested in tensions that exist as a result of merging the two cultures and whether the change in music mirrors the change in society.

Jack Tseng, currently working on his Ph.D. in biology. His undergraduate degree was from the University of Caliornia, Berkeley in integrative biology in 2004. He will spend the year in China conducting a comparative study of Chinese and North American extinct carnivores to understand the ecological changes that occurred as a result of the climate change.

Benjamin Uchiyama, a Ph.D. candidate in history, has an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Davis and a master’s from Harvard University. He will travel to Japan to study how that country’s mass media promoted empire-building and the national mobilization project during the 1930s and early 1940s. He is interested in examining the complexities and tensions of state-society relations in wartime Japan.

Candace Weddle, a Ph.D. student in art history. Her B.A. in classics and art history was earned at Baylor University in 1999, and her M.A. in art history was from Tulane University in ’02. She will spend a year in Turkey conducting research on “The Sensory Experience of Cult in Late Antique Asia Minor,” specifically the Roman imperial cult in the first through 4th centuries A.D.