Mary Schweitzer Scholarship winners

November 24, 2015

On 18 November, 2015 four Anthropology students received the Mary Schweitzer Scholarship for Excellence in Cultural Anthropology.

The winners are:

1st place Aidai Kadyralieva – Anthropology Senior

2nd place Gulnura Akylbekova – Anthropology Senior

3rd place Aisuluu Akhmetova – Anthropology Senior

3rd place Altynai Abdrakhmanova – Anthropology Sophomore

The Mary Schweitzer Scholarship for Excellence in Anthropology was established by the AUCA anthropology class of 2005 to honor their professor, Mary Schweitzer, for all she did for anthropology at AUCA and for her ongoing commitment to the future of her former students. Mary Schweitzer is a US-based professor of anthropology who taught anthropology at AUCA from 2002 to 2003 and from 2004 to 2005.

“Today we celebrate our awardees and our discipline. [Through anthropology], we learn to respect all other ways of life. Anthropology is important because it encourages us to be responsible citizens of the world,” said Dr. Mary Schweitzer.

The purpose of the scholarship is to encourage, coach, and financially support at least two ambitious, creative, diligent and committed Anthropology students who demonstrate financial need. The scholarship aims to promote anthropology education in Kyrgyzstan.

“Our scholarship is not a charity; it is an academic scholarship first and foremost. It shares its values with charity, but it has the prerequisite of academic distinction, participation in the academic community and the development of civil society. At the present, due to limited resources, we would like to focus on the citizens of Kyrgyzstan, but we also hope that in the future we can be open to any Central Asian anthropology student who is committed and outstanding,” said Gulmira Aldakeeva CAA’05 alumna, Damira Umetbaeva CAA’05 alumna, Alyona Faletskaya CAA'08 alumna, and Baktygul Tulebaeva CAA’05 alumna.

“First of all, I would love to say a huge thank you to Mary Schweitzer and the Anthropology Alumni for such an amazing opportunity that they founded in 2010. Second, I would like to thank all my professors at AUCA and at Bard College that gave me knowledge and practice. I am quite sure that all this information will be very useful in my future! Finally, I would love to thank those people that believed in me--who supported me. They are, of course, professors, specifically, Chotaeva Cholpon, Rahimov Ruslan, Toktogulova Mucaram, and my professors from Bard College, specifically Mario Bick and Robert McGrail. They are my family and close friends. Thank you all so much! I really appreciate what you do for me!” said Aidai Kadyralieva, the 1st place winner, senior of Anthropology department.

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