Holy Cross Senior Earns Fulbright Grant to Research Gambling Regulation in China

WORCESTER, Mass. – Thomas Gaffney, a member of the College of the Holy Cross Class of 2008, has been awarded a Fulbright Grant to conduct research and live in Macau, China.

“I applied for this in September and just got word on the last day of classes that I was awarded a grant,” exclaims Gaffney.  “I got a phone call out of the blue, and I was floored.”

A political science major from Yonkers, New York, Gaffney will be doing research in Macau, a tiny autonomous region of China.

“Macau recently surpassed Las Vegas as the gambling capital of the world,” explains Gaffney.

Gaffney, whose grant will last for 10 months, says he will be researching the government regulation of the casino industry to see whether it's controlled more by the Communist party in Beijing or Macanese government.

“It's a study in how capitalism is changing Chinese communist ideology,” he says.

Gaffney’s research grant starts in September, but he plans to head to China in August to volunteer at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

No stranger to China, Gaffney studied abroad in Beijing his junior year, learning Mandarin Chinese. This year he plans to learn a new dialect.

On campus, he works in the Dinand Library and is a member of the Phi Sigma Alpha Political Science Honor Society.

When he returns to the U.S. he hopes to work in international business and investment or for the government.

Each year approximately 1,000 college students are awarded grants through the Fulbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship program in international educational exchange. Fulbright grants are made to U.S. citizens and nationals of other countries for a variety of educational activities, primarily university lecturing, advanced research, graduate study and teaching in elementary and secondary schools. Since the program’s inception in 1946, more than 250,000 participants — chosen for their leadership potential — have had the opportunity to observe each other’s political, economic and cultural institutions.