TTS In Your Voice
Over the years, we’ve been privileged to interact with some incredible students. For many of them, the scholarship from Thanks To Scandinavia not only opened new opportunities, but also moved them in a very special, and sometimes personal way.
Below are a few quotes from students. In 2011, we started collecting these and sharing them with TTS friends and donors in a bi-annual publication called In Their Own Voices.
In Their Own Voices, Volume II, Winter 2011
In Their Own Voices, Volume I, Spring 2011
“My connection to Jerusalem and Israel was put to the test with the terrorist attack at the Frank Sinatra Cafeteria at the Hebrew University on July 30, 2002, an event that I witnessed first-hand. Friends and others were extremely supportive after it had happened. I was heartened to feel their support. It felt like I belonged to this place.” – Thomas Bay Estrup
Thomas Bay Estrup studies architecture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, through the Thanks To Scandinavia Sperling Scholarship.
“I was in class with a young American Jew, who, when told that I was Danish, took my hand, looked me in the eyes, and said “thank you.” That was all he said, but that was all he needed to say in order to make me almost uncomfortably aware of the gratitude many people still show towards Denmark.” — Kirsten Falkesgaard Slot
Kirsten Falkesgaard Slot is a Holst Fellowship recipient from Denmark.
“Coming by yourself to a different country provides a great challenge. It pushes you to take on more responsibility. I’ve gained more personal experience and independence during these last few months than any other part of my life.” – Erik Ohlsson
Erik Ohlsson, a TTS scholarship recipient, studied at the University of Oklahoma.
“One of the objectives of my stay at CUNY Hunter was to familiarize myself with the contemporary American mind and philosophy. I have forged new friendships. Such experiences and friendships are invaluable. They are just as important as gaining new professional knowledge.”
Maria Brincker, a Danish youth, studies at CUNY Hunter, in New York City.
“I would again like to express my appreciation for the work you all do at TTS in helping the academic exchange between the Scandinavian countries and the U.S. I am very proud to be one of the Thanks To Scandinavia grantees this year, and I am looking forward to keeping in touch in the future as well.”
Tiia Korppi, through TTS’s Leonard and Charlotte Schwartz Scholarship, studies at the University of Minnesota.
“I met my future husband in Yale a couple of weeks after the school year started. I then converted to Judaism, and we were married in Millburn, NJ. After my husband received his Ph.D. we moved to Finland. Moving back to one’s own country and seeing it from a point of a small minority has truly been a learning experience.
Pirkko-Liisa Louhenjoki studied at Yale with a Thanks To Scandinavia scholarship. She then started up a company which arranges cultural tours to Finland.
“The various courses I have taken have been very interesting and challenging. I now feel as if I understand the American legal system, and law in general.
Christine Aaris Petersen, a TTS grant recipient, studies at the University of Chicago Law School.
“I learned a lot from this study visit, which I can use on different levels in my own department of palliative medicine here in Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen. I credit the Thanks To Scandinavia Foundation, and I thank the staff of the department for taking such good care of me.”
Lise Pedersen spent two weeks on a TTS grant learning about pain and palliative care methods at Beth Israel Hospital in New York.
“I am proud of the work of Thanks To Scandinavia. For almost 50 years, this organization has been commemorating the brave acts of rescue during WWII and the heroism and humanism that it exhibited. And it has been doing that in ways that renew ties among peoples and strengthen our collective resolve to stand up for what is right.”
Liv Grimsby, Member of TTS Board
Feature
A Melancholy Beauty: Interview with Founders Kalin and Sharon Tchonev
Liv Grimsby, Thanks To Scandinavia A Melancholy Beauty, a Songs of Life Production, had its World Premiere tour last year with performances in Washington DC, Boston and New York City. A Melancholy Beauty is a commissioned oratorio which depicts the rescue of 49,000 Bulgarian Jews from Hitler’s death camps, in 1943. It was founded by [...]
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