Iuliana Lungu is originally from a small village in the region of Iasi, in northeastern Romania. She graduated from high school in June 2004 at Liceu Catolic Sf. Iosif, in Bacau, the nearest town to the village where her family lives. She boarded at the high school due to its distance from the family’s home. During the school year, she would visit home on the weekends to help her parents and to bring food back to school. There is currently no source of income in the family, as her father is retired and her mother is in ill health.

Of her experiences as a high school student, Iuliana writes, “I was very happy in school, because the education I received has enabled me to mature and grow in self-confidence, and it has given me a good grounding intellectually and spiritually. I was well prepared for the Baccalaureate exam, and even though it was stressful at the time, in the end it went well.”

Iuliana began her course in the Arts faculty at the University of Bucharest in Fall 2004. She will complete in a four-year degree program specializing in Romanian and Theology. It is her goal to become a teacher of Romanian, or to work with a book publishing company.

Iuliana’s scholarship is sponsored by the Emory University Goizueta Business School Class of 2005.