"The bigger vision of the AP Scholars Program is that the connections live on after the two years, and that they are fruitful because of the friendships and better understanding established during the discussions." 

-Thomas Fingar
Oksenberg/Rohlen Distinguished Fellow at FSI

Former President Gerhard Casper launched the Asia-Pacific Scholars Program (AP Scholars Program) in 1997 to strengthen and expand Stanford University's ties with Asia. The program was loosely modeled on Oxford University's Rhodes Scholarship. Led by renowned China scholar Michel Oksenberg of the Asia/Pacific Research Center (the predecessor organization of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center), the first program brought together a highly diverse class of nineteen graduate students from the United Kingdom, the United States, and numerous countries in Asia. The AP Scholars Program thrived under Oksenberg's direction, but fell dormant for nearly a decade following his death in 2001.

Thomas Fingar, the Oksenberg/Rohlen Distinguished Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a former chairman of the National Intelligence Council, re-launched the AP Scholars Program in September 2010. "I am delighted to have been asked to revive it," states Fingar. In keeping with its original design, the two-year program is open to Stanford doctoral students from Asia-Pacific countries and to those studying issues related to the region. The twelve current participants come from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and the United States, and are studying disciplines ranging from art history to engineering. In the future, incoming students will be invited to participate in the program, creating a dynamic cohort of new and continuing students.

The AP Scholars Program serves as a forum for discussing significant and often-sensitive issues relating to the Asia-Pacific region, and for building a strong academic and professional network linking Asia and Stanford. In its current format, it is designed to broaden students' understanding of how U.S. government officials think about and make policy decisions on Asia, and to provide insight into how American scholars study Asia in relation to global issues. Additionally, it offers the significant opportunity for students from different countries and academic disciplines to dialogue not only with one another, but also with leading academics and former senior-level U.S. government officials at Stanford. 

"This is really an incredible enrichment opportunity," emphasizes Fingar. Students meet once a month during the academic year for a two-hour dinner seminar featuring a presentation and a question-and-answer session with a guest speaker. These informal sessions offer a rare and a highly insightful window into the experience of individuals who have been involved in recent decades with key policy decisions about Asia and with major research shaping understanding of Asia in the United States. After each presentation, the speaker and students engage in candid dialogue.

During the 2010-2011 academic year, students will hear from academic experts on climate change, nuclear proliferation, and food and energy security, and from former senior U.S. government officials who served in the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the National Intelligence Council, and Congress. Fingar leads a wrap-up discussion after each presentation, during which the students provide their own perspectives on the issues presented. In this environment, difficult topics are discussed in an open, and thoughtful manner. There are no readings or other outside preparation required to participate in the AP Scholars Program.

Waraporn Tongprasit, a student with the Department of Management Science and Engineering who is originally from Thailand, appreciates the different issues discussed during the presentation sessions, and the opportunity for networking that the program offers. "Through the AP Scholars Program, I am learning about political, social, and economic issues in my home country and region, and about the perspective of U.S. scholars and the U.S. government on these issues," she says. "I also have an opportunity to establish connections with other students from the Asia-Pacific region who are experts in many different areas."

Yezhou Shi, a Materials Science and Engineering student from China, values the unique chance to speak so candidly with prominent scholars and former government officials, and to hear about their experience with major global issues and events. "These are stories that I could probably never know without attending the AP Scholar Program seminars—these are really inside stories," he says. Shi also enjoys the opportunity to speak with students from different countries on issues that he would not normally feel comfortable discussing. "In daily conversation, I would not bring up some of these issues unless it was with a really close friend," he stresses. "[In the program,] of course, I pay attention to what I say, but I think that everyone understands that we are there to discuss important issues."

Fingar is optimistic as he looks to the future of the program, and its continuing impact after the current class of students completes it in 2012. "The bigger vision of the AP Scholars Program is that the connections live on after the two years," he says, "and that they are fruitful because of the friendships and better understanding established during the discussions."

Pacific Vision: The inaugural AP Scholars class
 

The film Pacific Vision was released in 1998 to commemorate the AP Scholars Program's inaugural year. A clip from the film, featuring interviews with Casper and Oksenberg, is available here courtesy the Stanford University Archives. 
 

In September, Crystal Chang and Jeremy M. Menchik will join the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) as its Shorenstein Fellows for the 2011–2012 academic year. 

Crystal Chang, a PhD candidate with the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, is currently completing her dissertation on China's growing independent automotive industry. Her research examines Chinese automakers alongside historical case studies from Japan and Korea. During her time at Shorenstein APARC, she will expand her dissertation to include a comparative study of India's contemporary automotive industry, which, like China's, has experienced domestic and international success. She will also continue research that she is currently conducting about China's private energy sector, with a focus on the solar power industry. Chang holds an MPIA degree in international management from the University of California, San Diego, and a BA in international relations from Stanford University.

Jeremy Menchik, a PhD candidate with the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), is finishing his dissertation, which poses the question: what is the basis for religious tolerance in Indonesia, and why does it sometimes break down? He addresses this question through a study of Indonesian civil society and of three of the country's largest and oldest Islamic organizations: Nahdlatul Ulama, Muhammadiyah, and Persatuan Islam. Menchik has conducted extensive field research in Indonesia during the course of his graduate studies. At Shorenstein APARC, he will prepare his dissertation for publication and develop related projects on Islamic law, political tolerance, and political symbolism in Indonesian elections. Menchik holds an MA in political science from UW-Madison and a BA, also in political science, from the University of Michigan.

Established in 2002 through the generosity of Walter H. Shorenstein, the Shorenstein Fellowship in Contemporary Asia is an exciting opportunity for junior scholars to spend a year at Shorenstein APARC, engaging with other scholars and experiencing the world-class resources—ranging from libraries to events—that Stanford University has to offer. Shorenstein APARC looks forward to welcoming Chang and Menchik to the center in the coming academic year.

After completing the postdoc program, I landed a dream academic job, where I can continue to research health policy with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region. Despite its relatively short period, my postdoc experience also helped expand the scope of my research and the breadth of professional network.

-Dr. Young Kyung Do 
Former Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellow (2008–09)

The Asia Health Policy Program (AHPP) at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) is pleased to announce that Ang Sun has been awarded the 2011–12 Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellowship. Sun is currently completing her PhD in development economics at Brown University. She earned bachelor degrees in computer science and economics from Peking University in 2002. Sun's research focuses on resource allocation within households, especially in developing Asia. In her dissertation, she provides empirical evidence that the 2001 divorce law in China empowered women and decreased sex-selective abortion. She has also studied multi-generational living arrangements and household decisions about fertility and labor-force participation.

We also are delighted to announce that Yuki Takagi, currently completing her PhD in government at Harvard University, will be the 2012-13 Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellow. Takagi is completing her dissertation on the political economy of insurance provision and intergenerational family transfers, such as nursing and childcare, focusing on East Asia. She has earned bachelor of economics and master of law degrees from the University of Tokyo. Takagi will join Shorenstein APARC after completing a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Politics at Princeton University in 2011–12.

The research of these two postdoctoral fellows will complement the Shorenstein APARC research initiative on demographic change in East Asia.

The Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellowship is designed to strengthen research in the field of Asian comparative health policy and demographic change, drawing from junior scholars in a variety of disciplines, including: demography, sociology, political science, economics, law, anthropology, public policy, health services research, and related fields. Fellows participate in AHPP events and collaborative research while completing their own projects on health policy or the social and economic implications of population aging in Asia.

Previous postdoctoral fellows in the program have accepted faculty positions in Asia and the United States. Dr. Young Kyung Do (2008–09), who earned his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is now an assistant professor at the Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School. Dr. Brian Chen (2009–10), who earned his PhD in 2009 from the University of California, Berkeley, has accepted a faculty position at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. The current postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Qiulin Chen, earned his PhD from Peking University. He studies the political economy of China's health reforms as well as how China compares to other countries in terms of public and private intergenerational transfers (the China component of the National Transfer Accounts project).

Thoughts from the postdoctoral fellows

Dr. Do notes that "given that the primary goal of most postdoc programs is to help fresh PhD graduates prepare a successful academic career, my postdoc experience at Stanford['s Shorenstein] APARC has proved to be effective in my professional career thus far. After completing the postdoc program, I landed a dream academic job, where I can continue to research health policy with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region. Despite its relatively short period, my postdoc experience also helped expand the scope of my research and the breadth of professional network."

Dr. Chen adds that "the postdoctoral position opened many more doors than I had coming directly out of my Ph.D. program... The support I received was phenomenal... The wider Stanford community affords the postdoctoral fellow the opportunity to meet and interact with leading scholars of virtually any field in the arts and sciences."

The new postdoctoral fellows anticipate similarly stimulating experiences at Stanford:  Takagi says she is "delighted and excited" to accept the fellowship, and Sun emphasizes that she appreciates "the opportunity to spend one year at such a prestigious place as the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford, which will be a very nice start of my research career."

The breadth of [Shorenstein] APARC's work is truly impressive... I look forward to making full use of the resources and opportunities afforded me through the visiting fellowship.

-Dr. Siyan Yi

How can Stanford University contribute to improved health policy in the low-income countries of Asia? In addition to our formal degree-granting and research programs, mentorship of young scholars can play a role in strengthening the evidence base and analytic skills undergirding health policy for the millions of Asians who live on only a few dollars a day.

The Asia Health Policy Program (AHPP) is delighted to announce the inauguration of a fellowship program for young health policy experts from developing countries in Asia. The first Developing Asia Health Policy Fellow will be Dr. Siyan Yi from Cambodia. He holds a medical doctor degree from the University of Health Sciences in Cambodia as well as a doctoral degree in international health sciences from the Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Tokyo. Dr. Karen Eggleston, director of AHPP, will be his primary sponsoring faculty member.

Dr. Yi's research has centered largely on epidemiological methods. This has included, for example, work on surveys in Cambodia on adolescent risky sexual behaviors, substance abuse, and depression; a health promotion project in primary schools; sexual behaviors among people living with HIV/AIDS; and HIV risk behaviors among tuberculosis patients. Currently, he is involved in hospital- and community-based research projects in several developing countries as well as in Japan.

Cambodia has recently created a School of Public Health and is facing an increasing burden of chronic disease, while the burden from infectious diseases such as tuberculosis remains significant. Since Dr. Yi's research interests lie in health promotion and risky behaviors, he could someday be instrumental in helping to set policies to address the public health challenges Cambodia will face.  

Dr. Yi will join the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) in autumn 2011 for a nine-month fellowship to immerse in the academic environment and to develop additional skills to contribute to improved health policy in Cambodia. He notes that "the breadth of [Shorenstein] APARC's work is truly impressive... I look forward to making full use of the resources and opportunities afforded me through the visiting fellowship."