Holy Cross Student-Athlete Awarded Fulbright Grant

Gerald Dickinson, a member of the College of the Holy Cross class of 2009, has been awarded a Fulbright Grant to work and study at the University of Witwatersrand School of Law and the Centre for Applied Legal Studies in Johannesburg, South Africa.

A member of the College Honors Program with a double major in political science and sociology, Dickinson is a native of Pittsburgh.  While in South Africa, he will study and conduct research on race, human rights and housing policy; and will examine how to best serve the interests of low-income black African families in Johannesburg.  He will also work as a paralegal intern under the supervision of litigators and researchers representing families who have been evicted from their homes.

“This award is a culmination of my personal experiences growing up and my academic achievements at Holy Cross,” said Dickinson.  “I am very happy and excited, but I am also very enthusiastic about representing Holy Cross at the international level. I think being a Fulbright Scholar is a testament to the College of the Holy Cross, its core Jesuit value of ‘men and women for others’ and the College’s goal of bringing the best out of its students.”

An active member of the Holy Cross community, Dickinson was the captain of the men’s soccer team for three years, and was named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll in two consecutive years.  Interested in social justice and multicultural issues, he is involved in several multicultural student organizations on campus, including the Black Student Union and the Multicultural Peer Educators.  He writes for the student newspaper, The Crusader, is a Peer Mentor to first-year students, serves on the sociology student advisory committee, and has been a Manresa retreat leader.  In the Student Government Association (SGA), he has served as the director of diversity (2007-08) and director of student life (2008-09).

Dickinson’s undergraduate thesis, “The Section 8 Program: The role of housing policy design in facilitating black neighborhood movement and social mobility,” examines the effectiveness of housing policy in the U.S., using Worcester as a case study, and offers recommendations for how federal housing subsidy assistance, particularly the Section 8 voucher, can help low-income black families move to safer and better neighborhoods.  He presented his research earlier this month in Chicago at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference, and at the New England Sociological Undergraduate Conference in Worcester.

Dickinson has applied for a summer internship with the Domestic Policy Council at the White House.  He leaves for Johannesburg in January 2010.  Upon returning, he plans to attend law school and hopes to have a career in government or politics.

Each year approximately 1,000 college students are awarded grants through the Fulbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship program in international educational exchange. Fulbright grants are made to U.S. citizens and nationals of other countries for a variety of educational activities, primarily university lecturing, advanced research, graduate study and teaching in elementary and secondary schools. Since the program’s inception in 1946, more than 250,000 participants — chosen for their leadership potential — have had the opportunity to observe each other’s political, economic and cultural institutions.

Dickinson is one of four Holy Cross students to be awarded a Fulbright Grant this year.  Read more about the other recipients: James Brennan, Benjamin Rayder and Kathryn Zingarelli.