UA Student Earns Exchange Student Award from U.S. State Department

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – It’s not every day a student at The University of Alabama can legitimately claim he or she is “one in a million.”

Junior secondary education major Aaron Brazelton recently earned that distinction from the U.S. State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, whose Alumni Affairs division honored the Huntsville native with the International Exchange Alumni Award for the month of February.

The department awards one exchange alumnus – of more than one million across the United States – with the honor each month.

Brazelton spearheaded the creation of the The Serbia Fellowship Experience, an educational and social partnership between The University of Alabama Honors College, The University of Novi Sad and the municipality of Blace, Serbia.

According to the fellowship website, “Americans participate in sessions that address stereotypes, discrimination, and cultural identity.”

Students work closely with Serbian youth, creating and implementing plans to better equality both in Serbia and in the United States. Brazelton said the collaborative effort is the first student-led initiative in Serbia, which Brazleton first visited as an exchange student in high school.

The Serbia Fellowship Experience will be recognized on the International Exchange Alumni website throughout the month of February.

“All of this is possible because of the support of our administration at UA,” Brazelton said. “I’ve put in a lot of work for this, but so has my leadership team. We’re very grateful for Dr. (Mark) Nelson, (vice president for student affairs and vice provost), Dr. Robert Witt  (chancellor, UA System) … these people are not only supportive of our program, but they go out of their way to make sure we have the resources we need.

“It’s the same with Honors College, which has supported us financially.

“But they go beyond that,” Brazelton added. “Dr. Judy Bonner (UA President) has been receptive to having meetings, updating her on programs and seeking advice. They all help develop us into leaders who’ll impact communities across the world. I’m so glad I decided to come to UA.”

The Serbia Fellowship Experience is funded and supported by the UA Honors College, College of Education and Division of Student Affairs.

The group had its first trip to Serbia in 2013, when it helped implement anti-bullying curriculum from the Heritage Panel, a program started by the YMCA. Brazelton helped start a UA branch of the Heritage Panel, which selected 12 students from the Honors College to work with students at Salisbury High School in North Carolina and implement a curriculum that “addresses the negative behaviors of bullying, cliques and exclusion.”

“Ninety-five percent of the students (at Salisbury) who participated said now they feel they have the tools to make their school a more inclusive environment,” Brazelton said. “The cool thing is now the students there are working with the middle school kids to train them to help their classmates.”

Sanja Smiljkovic, program coordinator at Blace Elementary School in Serbia, has known Brazelton since his initial exchange trip to Serbia in 2007. Smiljkovic said American students face different issues than Serbian students, but regardless of the issues they each share a passion for activism.

She said she was impressed with Brazelton’s zeal and willingness to include a smaller Serbian town in the program, which motivated her to organize Serbia’s half of the fellowship. She’s hopeful the program will inspire more volunteerism among students in Serbia.

“Ever since he brought up the idea of the Serbia Fellowship Experience we have been in continuous contact,” she said. “[Brazelton] is an amazing and highly reliable friend who I am honored to cooperate with. People in Serbia love Aaron’s openness and kindness, his willingness to make the world a better place for everyone.

“He was so unselfishly passionate about sharing his own experience of Serbia to his peers that he managed to create a program to bring them here and closely work with Serbian youth,” Smiljkovic added. “His idea and his strength, along with his endurance and persistence, are truly amazing.”