“There is an Afghan proverb: A good year is determined by its spring. I think that is a worthy proverb to keep in mind, and indeed it is a call to action for us to be sure that the spring sets the pace for the kind of good year we hope to see in Afghanistan,” said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in her opening remarks at a State Department event celebrating the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council.

At the event, University President John J. DeGioia presented an award to Clinton and former First Lady Laura Bush for their contributions to the Council. Also in attendance were Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul and Afghan ambassador to the U.S. Eklil Hakimi.

DeGioia co-chairs the Council with Melanne Verveer, a Georgetown graduate and Ambassador-At-Large for Global Women’s Issues. Originally founded by former President George W. Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in 2002, the Council is dedicated to improving the standard of life for Afghan women and children by reaching out to non-governmental organizations as well as academics and the private sector. Both Sec. Clinton and Mrs. Bush thanked DeGioia yesterday for “providing a home for the Council since 2008.”

Foreign Minister Rassoul catalogued the dramatic improvements in the life of women and children in Afghanistan over the past ten years. According to Rassoul, women made up 40 percent of voters in the 2004 elections. He also mentioned the emergence of “female pilots, army and police officers, and professional martial artists.” DeGioia chuckled.

“These numbers and percent that I just referenced by the example were all a big zero in 2001 and there were no legal guarantees for women rights in Afghanistan,” Rassoul said. He thanked the Council and all members in attendance for their hard work.

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Earlier this week, the non-profit organization Center for a Public Anthropology announced that Georgetown Professor of Anthropology Elzbeita Gozdziak had received the top prize of its 2011 International Competition. This award, which  is offered in conjunction with the University of California Press, recognize the efforts of scholars in a wide range of disciplines who “address major public issues in ways that help non-academic audiences to understand and address them.”

Center for Public Anthropology awards the contest’s winner with a book contract with University of California Press and a $5000 advance. But the book that Gozdziak won for, entitled Victims No Longer: Trafficked Children into the United States, does not yet exist in the form of a manuscript.

This is not unusual for winners of this prize. The Center writes on their website that The California Series, the collection of scholarly books to which Godziak’s will belong, “is open to working with winning authors as they wind their way toward completion.”

Although she has no manuscript, Gozdziak did not win the prize simply for a catchy title and a good idea. The adjunct professor of anthropology, who also serves as Director of Research for Georgetown’s Institute for the Study of International Migration and edits the scholarly journal International Migration, submitted a proposal for her book which includes detailed descriptions of each chapter, and has done extensive amounts of research on the book’s subject, the trafficking of children in the United States.

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As individual countries continue to finalize their 2011 Fulbright grants, 11 Georgetown students this year have received awards so far, with the university awaiting word on an additional 13.

Six of this year’s recipients are graduating seniors. In 2010, Georgetown received 16 Fulbright grants, with 14 scholarships being awarded in 2009 and 18 in 2008.

Fulbright scholarships are awarded as part of the Fulbright Program, which allows students and researchers in the United States to receive grants to study and teach abroad for an academic year, while allowing foreign students the chance to study in the United States.

This year’s recipients will be studying and researching in countries across five continents, including Brazil, Cameroon, India, South Korea, and Austria.

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At the upcoming annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges, professor Sam Potolicchio is scheduled to receive the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award.

The award—named after a famed educational researcher—is given annually to graduate students who demonstrate a promising future in higher education.

Potolicchio, who has both a B.A. and M.A. from Georgetown, in addition to an M.T.S. from Harvard University, is expected to earn a Ph.D. in American Government this year. He teaches classes on American politics and constitutional law at Georgetown.

Each week he speaks as a lecturer at the Library of Congress as part of the Open World Leadership program.

Not only has Potolicchio been a professor in higher education, but he has also been an elementary teacher and high school administrator.

Potolicchio will receive his award during the late January conference in San Francisco.