Anthropology student studying in Spain

LONG BEACH - Doris Paredes, a sophomore anthropology major at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), is in Spain this summer taking part in a pair of excavations thanks to a $5,000 Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship.The Gilman International Scholarship Program offers grants for U.S. citizen undergraduate students of limited financial means to pursue academic studies abroad. Such international study is intended to better prepare U.S. students to assume significant roles in an increasingly global economy and interdependent world. "When I received the e-mail from the Gilman Scholarship Committee, I was very excited. I wasn't sure if the trip I had planned was going to be possible because of monetary issues, but I knew that with the scholarship I would be able to attend the field school," Paredes said. "And to be honest, I was even more excited when I went to the Gilman website and realized that they had awarded me $5,000. This would pay for the majority of my expenses." Paredes left last week (June 27) for Spain to take part in the Field School for Quaternary Palaeoanthropology and Prehistory of Murcia, S.E. Spain. The field school will have her excavating at Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Rio Quipar through July 21 and then at Sima de las Palomas del Cabezo Gordo from July 21-Aug. 11. Excavation has been going on for 20 years at these two sites. The daily routine at the field school includes waking up at 7 a.m. and excavating from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. Then, the day's finds are sorted from 5-9 p.m. In each three-week period, three long talks are given about the work and human evolution, and visits to local places of interest are also scheduled.

********** Published: July 14, 2011 - Volume 10 - Issue 13