Northfield, Minn.––Adam Karas '10, a senior majoring in international relations with a concentration in the Middle East and East Asia, has received a 2009 Vincent L. Hawkinson Foundation scholarship in recognition of his efforts to promote a more peaceful and just world.
Hawkinson Foundation scholarships are aimed at encouraging students who have already demonstrated a commitment to peace and justice to strive for those values in their educational pursuits and in their personal and professional lives. Since 1988, the Vincent L. Hawkinson Foundation for Peace and Justice in Minneapolis has awarded scholarships to 96 students from or attending schools in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and North and South Dakota.
Karas received the U.S. Department of State’s Critical Language Scholarship to study Arabic and spent a month at the Yemen Institute for Arabic Language. He studied Hebrew at the University of Haifa and is also learning Chinese. He was one of 30 Carleton students selected to participate in the college’s Middle East Mosaics Seminar, traveling and studying in Egypt, Turkey and Morocco. He was also a Larson International Fellow in 2009, following the path of Ibn Battuta, traveling from India to Sri Lanka, exploring transnational religious and linguistic bonds that are pertinent today.
“The juncture between the Muslim and Chinese worlds will shape the 21st century,” Karas said. “It is my intention to work in the places where both the English- and Chinese-speaking worlds touch the Muslim world, and in doing so help facilitate peace and understanding between all three.”
Karas and the eight other 2009 Hawkinson Foundation scholarship recipients will be recognized at the Annual Awards Presentation at 3 p.m., Sunday, November 8, 2009 at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.