Kyle Custis Allen '09 Awarded a U.S Student Fulbright Grant
Kyle Custis Allen ’09 has been awarded a U.S. Student Fulbright grant for 2010-2011 to study the principles of federalism with respect to constitutional law in the United Arab Emirates. He will be conducting this research with the support of Professor Jassim Ali Salem Al Shamsi, Dean of the UAE University College of Law. Most important, the benefits of the Fulbright grant will allow Kyle to engage the local Emirati community in an effort to promote cross-cultural understanding. Kyle was born and raised in Montana, and left his home and family in Missoula to pursue an education at the William Paterson University of New Jersey, where he graduated magna cum laude. Kyle began studying Farsi after taking a job as a bus-boy at a Persian restaurant in Philadelphia. As a law student at Villanova he was an active participant in the CARES clinic under the direction of professors Beth Lyon and Meredith Rapkin and in Villanova's Lawyering Together program under the supervision of attorney David M. Koller ’02. While participating in CARES, Kyle successfully represented in Philadelphia's Immigration Court the case of a Mauritanian man seeking political asylum. In the summer of 2007, Kyle studied law at the American University in Cairo where he also tutored English to a class of 30 Iraqi refugees. Pursuant to the Fulbright grant, Kyle will return to Cairo for a 2-month period to study the Arabic language and Islamic philosophy prior to traveling to the UAE. When he returns from his Fulbright year, Kyle plans to pursue a career as a public servant within the U.S. government either working with the State Department or the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General corps, focusing on the Middle East.
