By Kaitlin Solimine
March 2005

Sam Bazzi, a USC College undergraduate senior majoring in international relations and economics, has been awarded a Luce Scholarship.

The highly competitive Luce Scholars Program provides stipends and internships for fifteen young Americans to live and work in Asia each year. The program’s purpose is “to increase awareness of Asia among future leaders in American society,” particularly those students who have not spent a significant amount of time in the region.

Bazzi, a St. Louis, Mo. native whose father emigrated from Lebanon, is no stranger to world travel. Having spent nearly eight months in the Middle East last year—Spring semester in Cairo studying under a National Security Education Program scholarship, then the summer in Lebanon studying Arabic and working in Shatila refugee camp in Beirut—Bazzi is excited to apply his work experience and interest in economic development to an Asian context.

Though Bazzi will not be assigned to a particular country until next month, he is hoping to land himself an internship with a research institute in Indonesia or elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

“I am drawn to understanding the economies of Southeast Asian nations,” he says. “And I particularly want to see Islam as practiced in a non-Arab context.”

After he completes his Luce Scholarship internship, Bazzi intends to pursue a Ph.D. in economics and then hopes to work in public policy.

The Henry Luce Foundation, which awards the Luce Scholarships, was founded in 1936 by the late Henry R. Luce, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time Inc.