Bassney '13 Wins Fulbright

As a Fulbright Scholar, Kevin Bassney '13 will partner with the University of Belgrade law faculty on a project entitled "Coalition Building in Serbia" and live in the Balkan nation from October to June 2014.

Serbia is working to join the European Union and "to achieve this goal, many different business practices will have to change -- how workers are allowed to organize, how collective bargaining is structured and other workers rights," Bassney said in an interview.

"I am studying how this will be accomplished through a coalition of political leaders, workers groups and business executives," he said.

The Fulbright Program, administered through the U.S. Department of State, has awarded research grants since 1946.

Bassney's international experience as an intern in Nepal, Greece, Macedonia and Uganda working for groups such as the International Labour Organization is bound to serve him well in Serbia.

So will his political and governmental backgrounds.

He interned for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, along with a northern New York Congressman and a Nevada governor, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Nevada Attorney General’s Office.

Bassney was named a Meinig Family Cornell National Scholar and competed in varsity sports as a member of Big Red's Lightweight Crew and Sprint Football teams.

A January 2011 transfer to ILR from Norwich University and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Bassney was a member of Cornell's Army Reserve Officers Training Corps.

He graduated from ILR in January and works for Cornell Army ROTC.

Bassney's reply, when asked where he finds the energy to do so much in a few years, was brief. "Coffee helps, but I was also really focused on what I wanted to accomplish and that gives you a ton of motivation to keep going."