A Virginia Tech professor was awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to conduct educational research in South Africa this semester.

Mary Alice Barksdale, a professor in Tech's College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, left for South Africa on Sunday. She will conduct her research in a primary school in Port Elizabeth. Children there will write, illustrate and publish stories as part of a literacy program Barksdale plans to establish at the school.

The student publications will serve as texts to teach other children. The work is an attempt to provide culturally relevant material for students -- something in short supply in Sub-Saharan Africa. Barksdale will also deliver letters to the South African students from students at Hurt Park Elementary in Roanoke to promote a cross-cultural exchange of ideas.

The project was inspired by a "Students as Authors" project Barksdale helped develop in West Virginia and from work she did with Tech professor Patricia Kelly to help students create culturally relevant texts in the Republic of Malawi.

-- Greg Esposito