The Barbour Scholarship is a signature program of the University of Michigan (UM). As a Barbour Scholar, FSU College of Social Work Professor Dr. Amy L. Ai and a small group of Barbour Scholars represent women of the highest academic and professional caliber from the countries encompassing the large region extending from Turkey in the west to Japan and the Philippines in the east. They were invited to participate in the centennial celebration of the Barbour Scholars at the UM as its distinguished alumni in October 2017, coinciding with the bicentennial celebration of the UM itself.

Through two days of events, Barbour Scholars re-familiarized themselves with UM’s campus, inspired audiences and shared lessons they learned at the University of Michigan. The celebration kicked off with a lecture by Chair of Asian Languages and Cultures and Professor Donald Lopez, a member of Academy of Sciences, titled, “Asian Studies at the University of Michigan: A Brief History.” He highlighted the historical context of Levi Barbour’s generous gift, given during a time when the world was far from peaceful.

The highly competitive Barbour Scholarship has supported more than 700 female Asian scholars from more than 25 countries since 1917, beginning with Japanese women as the first two female medical doctors in Japan. This program helped to enhance the role of the United States in the complicated international relations in this region, as well as the UM’s strong global reputation over the past century, based on Dr. Lopez and the Dean of the UM Graduate School.

Another highlight of the event was the student and alumnae panel “100 Years of Opportunity: Asian Women’s Global Engagement.” All returned scholars shared their experience at the UM with graduate students of many disciplines on campus. Dr. Amy L. Ai highlighted the significant contribution of her mentor, Dr. Christopher Peterson, a founder of the Positive Psychology Movement, and many other national leading scholars to her personal growth at the UM where she found that purpose in life and humanity are more important than honor and fame. Dr. Ai became a Barbour Scholar while attending the UM for her three Master’s degrees and a joint doctoral degree in psychology and social work, which won the Distinguished Dissertation Award for her among 600 PhDs in 1997. 

Dr. Ai has since established a prestigious track record as a scholar in psychology, behavioral health, and social work with focuses on health, trauma, aging, and spirituality. In 2016, she was inducted as a fellow of the American Psychological Association’s Division 56, Trauma Psychology. She was also granted a Fulbright Distinguished Research Chair to China that year (unfulfilled due to unmet housing condition). In 2017, Dr. Ai accompanied FSU College of Social Work Dean Jim Clark and led a delegation of social work faculty and experts to China for a collaborative international symposium on “Disaster, Crisis Management, and Trauma” at East China University of Science and Technology.

Dr. Ai’s work most recently acknowledged with a 2017 Outstanding Poster Award by the American Psychological Association Division 56, Trauma Psychology, which only accepts posters. Titled, “Childhood Abuse, Posttraumatic Stress, and Lifetime Substance Abuse in Latin Americans: Whole-group, US-born, and Foreign-born Models,” the study was done with FSU Social Work doctoral graduate Dr. Jungup Lee, Sara Dworak, and Dr. Catherine Lemieux of Louisiana State University. Their analysis of a national sample expanded the knowledge base regarding the public health impact of inadequate and harmful childrearing in Latino families. The research findings built on existing literature to offer a developmental perspective on the relationship between child abuse and victimization with long-term adult psychopathologies such as lifetime substance abuse and PTSD.