Alexx Temeña Awarded the Forum on Education Abroad Undergraduate Research Award for Buddhist Studies in India
Yellow Springs, Ohio – Antioch Education Abroad (AEA) student Alexx Temeña was selected as a recipient of the Forum on Education Abroad Undergraduate Research Award for her 2013 work in AEA’s Buddhist Studies in India program. Her project, Others before Self: Buddhist Influences at Tibetan Children’s Village, Selakui, examined the role of Buddhism and how it affects the social and emotional well-being of students at Tibetan Children’s Village School, Selakui.
Through formal and informal interviews with students and teachers, direct observation, and participation in school activities, Temeña’s research and findings challenged the dichotomy of the religious and the secular, shedding light on Buddhism as inextricable to Tibetan cultural identity.
Antioch Education Abroad student Alexx Temeña, seen here in Dehra Dun, India in 2003, was recently awarded the Forum on Education Abroad’s Undergraduate Research Award for her work studying Buddhism and cultural identity in Tibet.
“My project in Dehra Dun, India launched me on a path of thinking critically and carefully about how mindfulness is taking hold in America,” Temeña said. “What I found through my fieldwork challenged my assumptions about Buddhism and helped me reflect on my perspective of the culture and religion as an American-raised and largely non-religious person. I was surprised and overjoyed to learn that I received the award.”
AEA is part of Antioch University and its unique study abroad opportunities are offered to students from any college or university. The Forum Research Award recognizes excellence in academic work completed by students as part of an education abroad program. Temeña, who is in the fourth year of a five-year program in Contemplative Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at Brown University, will present her research at The Forum’s Eleventh Annual Conference in New Orleans on March 27, 2015. For more information about the award and The Forum on Education Abroad, please visit www.forumea.org.
About Antioch Education Abroad (AEA)
Since 1956, AEA has offered globally engaged, field-based study abroad to students from across the country. The programs combine cross-cultural immersion and rigorous coursework with intensive forms of experiential learning—independent field research projects, service learning, or arts apprenticeships—embedded within local communities abroad in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. For more information, visit antioch.edu/aea.
