Spelman College Highlight - Fulbright Fellow Chantal James

A historically Black college for women, Spelman College promotes academic excellence in the liberal arts and develops the intellectual, ethical, and leadership potential of its students. Spelman College is proud that "students enter as girls and leave as young women ready to lead and to serve."

The Fulbright Fellows distinction is given to a few select students each year at Spelman College. Fulbright fellows are chosen for their exceptional leadership potential and are given the opportunity to teach, study, or conduct research internationally. The goal of the program is to further develop the student's international competence and cross-cultural experience. Chantal James is an exemplary Spelman student featured here as a new Fulbright Fellow. Whatever college you attend, keep in mind the Fulbright Fellowships if you are going to pursue graduate study.

The Fulbright Program is a program of educational grants founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright, The program was established to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills. It is considered one of the most prestigious award programs, operating in 144 countries. More Fulbright alumni have won Nobel Prizes than those of any other academic program, and former recipients also include former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, Colin Powell, and Nelson Mandela.

While many graduating seniors were contemplating their next steps, Chantal James, Class of 2007, knew exactly where she was headed. Thanks to the Fulbright Foundation, the Spelman philosophy major with minors in French and creative writing, will spend the 2007-2008 academic year in Morocco working on her novel, tentatively titled "Writing the Body's Motion in Morocco." The book will explore mass movements of transmigration into and out of Morocco.

James has been interested in writing since she was a young child. "As long as I can remember, I've been reading everything I can get my hands on. I believe that writers of poetry and fiction play a fundamental role in shaping culture and in telling truth. I also believe that art frees the artist and frees the world." she says. The recipient of the 2006 Prize for Fiction at the Hollins University literary festival, James' poem, "The Christ-bearer," will appear in the 2007 edition of "Kakalak," an anthology of the best poetry written by North and South Carolina poets.

"I believe that writing is a path to wisdom; every older writer I know is wise, and sitting at the feet of older writers has been one of my greatest and most humbling honors. Spelman has afforded me the opportunity to meet some of my heroes, in this way," James reflects.

Last summer, James interned at "Glamour Magazine" in New York, and Scholastic Inc, the children's publisher, the previous summer. She moderated SisterFire, the AUC's only women-only open mic, which she calls, "a safe and healing space for women."

James, one of the organizers of the September 20 protest against Sexual Violence in the AUC, says she is a fighter for personal liberation. "I believe in freedom with sacredness. I believe in our ultimate obligation to free ourselves, and I believe that personal liberation radiates outward because as Toni Cade Bambara said, 'Revolution begins with the self.'"

Chantal was a member of the Toni Cade Bambara Scholar Activist Collective, and has presented at the Women's Resource and Resource Center's Toni Cade Annual Conference. "The warmth and power of the Women's Center here at Spelman has been really been formative for me."