Georgia member Noni Carter, who will graduate from Harvard University in May, has received the a prestigious Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Fellowship at Harvard. She is one of five recipients chosen this year to participate in one year of meaningful travel to a country of the applicant's choosing.

Noni will be heading to Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean for hands-on experience of the countries she has been studying in college. She intends to examine the relationship between the French and Creole cultures that exist on these islands in several different social arenas. She will research classrooms, teaching English and working on poetry with students, working on storytelling with elders in different communities, and exploring the music scenes. She also plans to explore the traditional use of herbal medicine that still flourishes in some of the communities.

She is also working on her second novel, which examines sexual violence against women around the world, told through intertwining stories of three different female voices.

Noni has spoken at NSHSS member events and career networking panels.  Her first novel, Good Fortune, was published by Simon and Schuster in 2010 and received the Parents' Choice Gold Award. Good Fortune is a slave narrative woven through the remembrances of Ayanna Bahati, an African-American slave in the 19th century, largely inspired by the real-life experience of Noni’s great-great-great-great grandmother.