Elizabeth Eckert is a junior at the State University of New York at Fredonia. She is pursuing a BA in Political Science and International Relations along with a minor in French. She has been studying French for seven years and plans to study abroad to gain fluency by the end of her undergraduate career. In addition to her interest in the French language, she also takes Arabic courses at SUNY Fredonia and hopes to study the language more in-depth in the future.

After her undergraduate career, Elizabeth plans to attend a graduate school for International Affairs in the Washington, D.C. area. She would like to eventually work in the foreign policy field. She hopes to focus on human rights abuses, particularly that of women and how to prevent these abuses from occurring. Democratic governance, women in politics, international development, and conflict resolution are other areas she is strongly interested in.

Shinichi Manabe is a senior at Canisius College in Buffalo. He is pursuing a Political Science major in order to better understand the United States' political situation and its ties with other countries. Shinichi is originally from Hokkaido, an island in the northern parts of Japan. He came to the United States as an international student when he was 20 years old and since then, he has enjoyed studying in many different cities across the country such as Philadelphia, Seattle, Boston, and Buffalo. This schooling experience has allowed him to gain many different perspectives of the political world, which is a very important skill when it comes to examining issues.

Shinichi has relished the opportunity to conduct research for the Eurasia Center in Washington DC during his summer internship. He has participated in both conservative and liberal think tank conferences and other presentations. In the future, Shinichi seeks to work in the field of diplomacy with a particular interest in helping forge a stronger relationship between Japan and the United States as well as other European and Asian countries.

Katarina Grbic is a senior completing a BA in Political Science at The College at Brockport, State University of New York. Katarina is originally from Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. She studied at the University of Belgrade, Law School, where she got her associate degree and pursued her bachelor degree. She is a member of the Pi Sigma Alpha Honor Society and Tau Sigma Academic Honor Society, and she is on the Dean's List with Honors every semester at the SUNY Brockport. Her current interest is to pursue graduate studies in Political Science or International Affairs, focusing on political economics and political transatlantic relations, where she hopes to focus her future career.

Katarina is fluent in English, Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian. At the Eurasia Center, Katarina will work on developing a political and an economic country profile of the Republic of Serbia and also will be writing the Eurasia brief on the post-Yugoslavian development.

Josh Mador will be a senior at the State University of New York at Geneseo this fall. He is completing a double major in Political Science and International Relations as well as a minor in Spanish. Josh's academic areas of interest are the regions of South Asia and Latin America as well as democratization efforts worldwide. Josh is originally from Buffalo, New York, but spent the summer of 2009 in Valencia, Spain. He went to Spain to further his studies in Spanish and to become a better global citizen. In the future Josh hopes to pursue a career in foreign policy, ideally in the US Foreign Service.