November 19, 1999
Contact: Sandra Gault, International Student Services, (785) 864-3617.
LAWRENCE -- The Office of International Student Services at the University of Kansas has appointed five students, including the first U.S. student volunteer, to the International Student Ambassador Program for the 1999-2000 academic year.
The volunteer program, which began in spring 1998, selects and trains prominent KU international and domestic students to promote KU abroad, said Joe Potts, KU director of International Student Services.
The new ambassadors are:
-- FRANCES MARGARET LIN LIAN TAN, senior journalism major from Malaysia;
-- MANUEL ANGULO, freshman journalism major from Colombia;
-- MARIANA NISSEN da COSTA PAIVA, senior majoring in journalism and in Latin American studies, from Brazil;
-- MOUSSA SISSOKO, Ph.D. student in American studies from Mali; and
-- CORINNE MORIARTY, sophomore majoring in international studies and in French, from Buhler.
Students appointed in spring 1998 were: Aminu Gusau, graduate student from Nigeria; Fahad Maral, sophomore from Pakistan; and Catherine Sembajwe Reeves, senior from Uganda.
Profiles of the 1999 volunteer ambassadors follow.
FRANCES TAN is majoring in advertising. At KU, Tan's extracurricular activities include serving as president of the Malaysian Student Association and the KU Study Abroad Club. She is the vice president of the KU International Leadership Council, the student representative for the School of Journalism curriculum committee and serves as a peer adviser in journalism. She plans to work in an advertising or marketing agency in the U.S., and eventually complete a post-graduate degree in either advertising, marketing or business before returning to her home country.
MANUEL ANGULO volunteered to become an international student ambassador because he enjoys studying at KU. He would like to devote some of his time to helping students from his country enroll at KU. In his country Angulo has helped provide poor and elderly people with food supplies and organized recreational activities for them. Angulo is a member of Rotaract in Columbia, a club affiliated to Rotary International.
MARIANA NISSEN da COSTA PAIVA has served in Brazil as a Girl Scout leader. At KU, Nissen is active in the Brazilian-Portuguese Organization, Study Abroad Club, Latin American Solidarity and International Council. She is the president of the Brazilian Student Association. She also organized the International Olympiad and participated as a volunteer in the fall 1998 new international student orientation. Nissen would like to work for a Hispanic newspaper and ultimately work in the communication department of a human rights organization.
MOUSSA SISSOKO is a two-time Fulbright scholar. In Mali, Sissoko has been a member of the Labor Union of higher education, whose purpose is to defend and protect workers against abuses of the government. At KU, he serves as vice president of the KU chapter of Phi Beta Delta, an international honor society, which has honored him twice as an outstanding international student. Sissoko works with the International Speaker Service program of ISS and is public relations officer for the KU African Students Association. He is a Vice Chancellor Fellow at KU. When Sissoko completes his doctoral degree and returns to Mali, he will teach at the university level.
CORINNE MORIARTY is the first U.S. student at KU to be inducted as an ambassador. She is studying abroad in France for the fall 1999 semester. Moriarty works in the Office of International Student Servies. While in France, Corinne will organize talks and informational gatherings about KU with prospective students, their parents and with high school and college counselors. Moriarty's career goals include going to law school to study international law and working in foreign service.