CIE has had a long and strong relationship with the Open Society Foundations (OSF) scholarship programs since 1998, continuing to the present. In spring of 1998, Gretchen Rossman was asked to participate in the selection of Muskie Fellows from the then-newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. She continued to participate in the selection of highly-qualified M.Ed. students through 2012, when the contract for management of the Muskie Fellows in Education shifted from OSF to the Institute for International Education. Over the years, CIE hosted 25 Muskie Fellows coming from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. One Muskie Fellow from Kazakhstan is an entering PhD student this fall, 2016.
In 2006, CIE was asked to participate in the selection of doctoral students as part of the Palestinian Faculty Development Program. This initiative brought four doctoral students to CIE: three from the West Bank and one from Gaza. All successfully completed their programs of study and returned to Palestinian Universities. In July-August, 2010, Gretchen and Sharon Rallis travelled to Ramallah to participate in a celebratory conference featuring the scholarship of all PFDP Fellows.
Given the success of these initiatives, CIE was asked to help design and then participate in in-country interviews of applicants to the OSF’s Doctoral Fellows Program, hosting students from Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. Once again, this brought three doctoral Fellows to CIE, all from Georgia. All three are currently completing their programs of study.
Most recently (April, 2016), Dr. Rossman was invited to participate in the selection of Civil Society Scholars through OSF. Now in its second year, this initiative provides grants for short-term research to current PhD students and faculty members in 35 countries. Applicants developed proposals for international travel to gather data for either their dissertations or for continued research. Applications had to show how the research would contribute to the development of civil society and human rights in their home countries. Gretchen participated in the review of applications from sub-Saharan Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Sudan).
CIE will maintain contact with OSF in the hopes that we can look forward to more sponsored students and other exciting opportunities in the future.