UM Senior Receives Scholarship to
Study in Belfast, Ireland

January 2009

When Tupelo-native Catherine Servati reached her senior year in college, she thought her chance to study abroad had passed. But an unexpected scholarship has this English major heading to Belfast in Northern Ireland this spring semester, where she will study at Queens University for the price of regular tuition at Ole Miss.

Her scholarship is awarded by the Southeastern Conference Academic Consortium (SECAC), a voluntary alliance of 12 schools from the Southeastern Conference that provides funds to send one student from each of its member schools to Queens University.

An administrator in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College first approached Servati about the scholarship early in the fall 2008 semester.
“After I first heard about (the scholarship) I kind of kept it in the back of my mind for a while,” she said. “I figured this was just too good an opportunity to not pursue.”

While abroad, Servati plans to study Irish literature, theology, and Irish cultural studies; a subject that will be a little new to her but she said she is interested to apply her knowledge of Southern culture to that of Ireland, where religious tensions have been as severe as racial ones in the American South.

All SECAC scholars stay in the dormitories, use meal plans, and use Belfast’s public transit system during their time at Queens. UM Study Abroad Advisor Maury Breazeale said the estimated cost of the trip including travel, housing, meals, and personal expenses would regularly be more than $20,000.
Servati will return to UM in the fall 2009 semester to finish her senior thesis—a paper examining Dave Egger’s “What Is The What,” a book regarded as a poignant blend of fiction and nonfiction that tells the life story of a young male Sudanese refugee. Her paper will apply the book’s themes to a group of Sudanese refuges—commonly called “The Lost Boys”— now living in Jackson, Miss. She first encountered this group of young men while interning with the Mississippi teacher corps last summer. As part of her internship she created a short documentary on the men’s journey from Sudan to their new life in Jackson.

“That internship really gave me a new found respect for teachers when I saw how hard their jobs really are,” She said recalling her experience.

After college Servati is interested in applying to law school and eventually working in education—yet doesn’t want to be an educator. She does not see herself creating lesson plans as much as writing legal briefs and working with the educational policy makers of tomorrow. Servati, who attended public schools in Tupelo, said her ideal vision is helping Mississippi become a place where quality education is not determined by birthright and geography.

“Catherine is a natural leader, She is one of those glue type people,” Benjamin Guest, program director for the Mississippi Teacher Corps said. “She is just always positive and always bringing people together.”

Catherine’s video on the Lost Boys of Sudan:

Click here for more information on the Office of Study abroad.

(Andrew Abernathy)