East Asian Languages & Cultures 2009 Prize Winners

 

Liu Family Distinguished Achievement Award in Asian Studies 2009

The Liu Family Distinguished Achievement Award in Asian Studies is given annually to the student whose character and undergraduate work best exemplify the qualities of commitment, diligence, and imagination in the study of Asia. This year, in 2009, for the first time since the award was established six years ago, we have two winners: Brandon Frost and Janet Han. The reason for the committee’s decision to name co-winners is that both candidates have distinguished achievements, not only in their academic studies, but also in having made significant contributions to the culture of the department. Moreover, Frost and Han are the first students to have encompassed in their studies of language and culture, the broad horizons of Asia, through firsthand experiences of study and work in China, India, Japan, Korea, Mongolia and Thailand.

Brandon Frost, Co-Winner of the Liu Family Distinguished Award in Asian Studies.

alt=Brandon Frost
Brandon’s proclivity for effective leadership has been displayed in a wide variety of extracurricular activities, including but not limited to, the Asian American Association, Na Pua Kai’Ewalu (Hawai’i an Club), and the East Asian Languages and Cultures Student Advisory Committee. As further evidence of extraordinary leadership, Brandon was the first Japanese major in the Department to have written an honors thesis and the first undergraduate in the Department to have conducted a public forum focused on his own research.

Brandon has been a tireless advocate of East Asian studies at Notre Dame, and he has helped the EALC department in many ways. He was the coordinator of the Japanese language table in spring 2008, a task he undertook with the same seriousness and diligence as his course work. On his own initiative, Brandon has also ensured that information about the Japanese and Chinese majors is available in academic advising offices and that underclassmen and incoming freshmen are informed about both majors. He is a founding member of the department’s student advisory committee where one of his contributions was to design and organize the sale of sweatshirts which constituted both a fundraiser and an advertisement for the students in the department. Brandon has repeatedly volunteered to assist with ongoing cultural events (such as film nights) and has made an effort to attend every academic talk on Japan at the University. Brandon has served as a mentor to the underclassmen in EALC, where during fall 2008, in the hope of encouraging other students to apply for the summer study abroad program in Hakodate, he put together a sophisticated presentation about his own experiences on the program. Similarly, during spring 2009, in the hope of encouraging other students to emulate him in writing theses, he held a forum on his own research. Brandon was also on the student committee for the 2009 Asian Film Festival, where he took the lead in coordinating student publicity efforts and put in many hours behind the scenes helping the festival to run smoothly. He also introduced the film Hula Girls by giving the audience a short lesson in hula dance. Brandon also regularly performs hula dance with the Hawaii Club at Notre Dame and is an active member of the Japan Club and the Chinese Percussion Ensemble led by Prof Stephanie Ng. In all these extracurricular activities, Brandon is not only reliable and energetic, but also highly self-motivated; he is never content to simply follow orders, but always has new and original ideas to contribute to any enterprise.

Brandon simply does not look at the world the way most students do, for he is deeply passionate about the quest for wisdom, and it is this passion that accounts for his success. In his years of undergraduate study, Brandon has displayed catholic intellectual affinities by reading and writing voluminously on Japanese popular culture and film, Chinese religions, and the phenomenology of cults such as Falun gong. In these endeavors, Brandon has always focused on the sense of their respective contributions to the broader issues of public morality and the constitution of the state, bureaucracy, and civil service. His broad ranging language study has been rounded out by work in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai. During the spring 2009 semester, Brandon was the recipient of the “Kenneth H.S. Kwak Scholarship for Asian Studies.” This scholarship is awarded by the Asian Pacific Alumni of Notre Dame. After graduation Brandon will be studying for a Masters degree in Japanese at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Janet Han, Co-Winner of the Liu Family Distinguished Award in Asian Studies.

alt=Janet HanJanet Han stands as a most remarkable graduate: a student majoring in two disciplines EALC (Chinese) and Film Television and Theatre (Film Studies), with a near-perfect grade point average, who is chiefly responsible for the inauguration of our department’s Korean program. Beginning in her freshman year, Janet labored industriously to persuade the College of Arts and Letters to provide the resources to underwrite instruction of Korean language and culture, and thanks to her endeavor, the initial groundwork was laid in 2005, for a partnership that would culminate in fall 2008, with the inauguration of Korean studies at Notre Dame. In the interim between the program’s conception and its implementation, Janet beginning in fall 2006, took it upon herself to design and implement a weekly language class that was taught informally by Korean graduate students to students and staff with varied backgrounds in and knowledge of the Korean language. This class was so popular that it was continued by her fellow students during 2007-2008 when Janet, spent the year in intensive language study in Beijing.

Janet has also been actively engaged in extracurricular activities where she has served as assistant producer, stage manager, and board of directors of Asian Allure and as a member of the organization board of the Asian American Conference “In Focus.” She has served as senior advisor to the Asian American Association and the Korean Students Association and has played viola (first stand) for the Notre Dame Symphony Orchestra.

Janet’s work in Asia and Asian studies extends far beyond the confines of her major in Chinese. She has lived and worked in India (the “Kalighat” Mother Theresa House in Calcutta), Mongolia (Don Bosco Youth Center in Ulaanbaatar), South Korea (Nobis Productions in Seoul) and Thailand (Habitat for Humanity in Lapsang). It is evident by her academic, personal, and pre-professional endeavors—local as well as global—that Janet Han is someone, who, as Professor Aaron Magnan-Park has observed, “wants to connect Asia with the United States and Asia with Asia.”

Distinction in Chinese:


Edith Félix as winner of the Award for Excellence in Chinese Studies. alt=Edith Felix
Edith Félix made the decision to major in Chinese relatively late in her academic career, but once that decision was made, she has worked ceaselessly and taken full advantage of the University’s study abroad programs (Shanghai for a semester and at Fu Jen University in Taipei, Taiwan during a summer), to enable herself to complete her major. As a major, Edith has done remarkably well in her language classes and has completed a whole series of content classes in Chinese literature and culture. In the words of Professor Sylvia Lin, “Edith serves as a great example of how one can succeed through hard work and determination.” As another indicator of her success, Edith has recently been accepted to three prestigious graduate programs in Chinese studies and has decided to go for a Masters of Pacific International Affairs with a Chinese regional focus at University of California, San Diego

Distinction in Japanese:


Drago Flores as winner of the Award for Excellence in Japanese Studies. alt=Drago Flores
As a Japanese major, Drago’s performance in the Japanese language classes and the content classes that contribute to his major has been very strong. He is a serious, conscientious, and motivated student, who, according to Professor Noriko Hanabusa, “dramatically improved his Japanese language proficiency after studying at Nanzan for Fall 2007.” The awards committee was especially impressed by Drago’s accomplishments as the current President of the Japan Club and by his contributions to the academic life of the department . Drago has been accepted to the prestigious summer program at the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies, after which he will move to South Korea to teach English.

 

Gavin Payne

Economics, Chinese, and Italianalt=Gavin Payne

McGrath Award winner

“An Analysis of the Economic and Social Costs of China’s Three Gorges Dam”

The construction of China’s Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric river dam, has been both heralded as a feat of engineering and condemned as a massive mistake. Gavin applied for UROP funding so he could travel to China and study firsthand the dam’s economic, environmental, and social impact.

 

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The peoples of China and Japan comprise one-quarter of the population, production, and consumption in today’s ever-changing world.

Knowledge of the diverse languages and cultures of East Asia is vital to developing an understanding of our global community. 
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The Office of International Studies offers study abroad programs at East China Normal University in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan, and Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan. Details>

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Students who wish to enroll in a Chinese or Japanese language course beyond the 101 or 111 level must take a placement examination administered by the Department at the beginning of the fall semester. Details >