The award allowed Jinchveladze to finally see a grain of light at the end of a dark tunnel after weeks of fighting in the Georgian conflict had finally reached a cease-fire in late August. `When this horrible situation ended, I was notified that I had won the scholarship, which was at that moment, a light spot in my life,' she said.
The Georgian student vividly recalls the weeks leading up to the notification. `My brother, who is a medical doctor, was in the center of the war helping the wounded. It was a relief after one week when the bombing stopped and refugees were safe in government shelters,' she said. `It's a very unstable situation in my country, which makes it extremely difficult to find financial resources to study.'
Growing up in the capital city of Tbilisi, whose name is derived from the area's numerous sulfuric hot springs, Jinchveladze's ultimate aim is to make a difference in the world of development for her country. She has worked with various international and private organizations: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Peace Core.
The scholarship was founded in the memory of the late Professor Herman de Winter, the first dean of the Technical Physics Department of Electrical Engineering in 1969. Pamela Habibovic was the first recipient of the scholarship, presented last year at the University's Dies Natalis celebration, for her outstanding research on synthetic bone graft substitutes.
Jinchveladze's research work will combine several academic fields, including Project Management in the Governance Sector, Human Resource Management and Linguistics. This native of Tbilisi wants to boost her aptitude in these areas to be able to contribute to the development of Georgian institutions. `The human research development sphere needs immediate enhancements, especially in the public sector in Georgia,' she said.
Now that peace is restored to the Georgian region and her own family is out of harm's way, she can concentrate on earning a master's degree in Business Administration. She believes, `The UT is a gateway towards new scientific achievements.'
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| Chatting in Russian: `I visited Mrs. De Winter in the afternoon in her lovely house. Faces and eyes tell a lot about a personality, and from the moment I saw her, I knew she had a kind soul. I found out about the sad history of her family, who she had lost during World War II, and she never saw them again. We switched to speaking Russian, the language of her childhood, and it seemed that we were very close and had known each other for a long time.' |
