Thursday I attended an event where Dr. Sonja Merljak Zdovc released her new media literacy book for Slovenian children. She spent 2001-02 as a Fulbright scholar at Mizzou, then went back to finish her Ph.D. She now is a well-known newspaper columnist and edits Časoris, an online publication that provides news, entertainment, and cultural information for students and their teachers.
She and I arrived at the University of Missouri the same year -- although I came the summer of 2001 and she arrived at one of America's most chaotic days: 9-11. She has fond memories of the school and the professors who helped her launch a stellar career, especially Jacqui Banaszynski and Don Ranly.
Meeting her was clear evidence that Senator Fulbright's idea works -- both knowledge and peace grow when you let scholars share their lives in person instead of just pondering faceless names in a text.
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