OUR CORRESPONDENT
MANGALDAI: The 2020 Assam Scholarship in Honors Research was awarded to Stanlee Brandt and Y. Luong of Sam Houston State University (SHSU), Huntsville, Texas in USA. Stanlee received this scholarship for her research project 'A Start-up Website for Bees and Y. Luong for her project 'Development of Virtual Reality Simulation for Emergency Evacuation in Education'.
The scholarship is named after Assam to increase awareness about the State among the SHSU community in the United States. A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Stanlee is a Forensic Chemistry major and hopes to work as a toxicologist for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Even though her major does not have anything to do with bees, her appreciation for them led her to conduct research in that special topic. She believes that 'no matter what challenges or obstacles you face, you are stronger than all of it and will continue to persevere if you believe you can'.
Y Luong is an international student from Vietnam with a major in Construction Management. She collaborates with her peers on projects that apply virtual reality to various Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. She hopes to acquire comprehensive knowledge of not only the process but also the business of construction to build a successful career in it. Admitting that English being the second language could sometimes be an obstacle, she lets her failures fuel her progress and success in life. In a virtual award ceremony hosted by the Elliott T Bowers Honors College, Professor Hiranya Nath - who established the scholarship in 2009 - announced the names of the scholarship recipients and gave a brief introduction of Assam.
According to Dr. Nath, in order to attract foreign investment in the global economy, it is extremely important that the host region or place (for foreign capital) is known to the prospective international investors and business communities. He has learned from his extensive travels across the globe that Assam is relatively unknown to the outside world and that is the first major hurdle as Assam strives to achieve economic growth and development in the current global economic environment. This scholarship is purported to increase awareness about Assam among students, faculty members, and parents in US.
Professor Nath hoped that the students, faculty and staff members would not only be aware of Assam through this initiative but would also be interested in exploring, researching and investing in his beautiful homeland.