Fellowship and scholarship winners announced

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Several Middlebury students have recently learned that they are recipients of prestigious academic awards and fellowships. For sophomores and juniors, these awards will help support the students’ academic and research interests at Middlebury.  A number of seniors have received post-graduate fellowships for graduate study and research projects. Two recent Middlebury graduates have received National Science Foundation research fellowships.

Following is a brief overview of these fellowships and awards:

Postgraduate

J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board

The Fulbright program awards grants through a national competition to highly motivated students who wish to undertake research, advanced study or a teaching assistantship for up to one year in a foreign country.

Jessica Bluestein ’11, an international studies/Latin America major, with concentrations in Portuguese and literature & culture, will pursue sociology research in Brazil.

Olivia Claudio ’11, a German major, will pursue an English teaching assistantship in Germany.

Christopher Hench ’11, a double major in German and economics, will pursue a teaching assistantship in Germany.

Timothy Liu ’11, a psychology and sociology/anthropology major, with a minor in teacher education/elementary, will pursue sociology research in China.

Amelia Noble ’11, a biochemistry major with minors in physics and anthropology, will research public health in Uganda.

Romany Redman ‘11, a chemistry and Russian major, will research public health in Russia.

UPDATE 8/23/11: Di-Hoa Le ’11, an international studies major who was previously named as an alternate, has been awarded a Fulbright to teach English as a second language in South Korea.

Compton Mentor Fellowship

This fellowship promotes innovative activities that address local and global concerns through a one-year self-directed fellowship experience involving a mentor. Fellows from Middlebury are encouraged to focus on environmental sustainability through projects relating to climate change and energy policy.

Alison DeGraff ’11 (pictured with group above), a geography major with minors in Latin American history and Portuguese, will spend her year-long Compton Fellowship in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean. She will be doing participatory mapping and marine space-use planning, through the collection and use of local knowledge, to help communities sustainably plan and manage unregulated development in order to protect their increasingly fragile ecosystem.

Thomas J. Watson Fellowship

This fellowship enables students of unusual promise to pursue independent study on a topic of personal and cultural significance through one year of study and travel abroad following graduation.

Austin Davis ’11, a political science major, says his goal is “to spend time with people, listen to their stories, immerse myself in their everyday lives, and learn what ‘disability’ means throughout five strikingly different Arab societies – Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and immigrant Arab communities in Greater London.”

Sarafina Midzik ’11 (pictured with group above), a joint biology and political science major, will explore how individuals of different religious traditions grapple with Darwinian evolution. Her year of travel will include stops in Jordan, Turkey, Tunisia and Morocco.

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program

This program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees and awards three years of financial support to individuals who have demonstrated their potential for significant achievements in science and engineering research.

David Fouhey ’11, a computer science major, will pursue a doctorate in computer science from Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute.

Cassidy D’Aloia ’09, a biology major with a minor in Spanish, will pursue a doctorate. in marine biology at Boston University.

Sara Lowes ’07, a political science and economics double major, will study social sciences at Harvard University.

Vermont Community Foundation High Meadows Fellowship

Sarah Simonds ’11 has won this fellowship, which will also help shape the Community Foundation’s comprehensive sustainability plan and coordinate a network of funders who support food and agriculture-related work in the state.

Vermont Community Foundation Philanthropy Fellowship

Carolyn Fox ’11 has won this fellowship, whichprovides a unique opportunity for a graduating senior to work for two years with the Community Foundation’s communications team and philanthropic advisors to help their giving partners, including donors and grantee organizations, understand community need and the role of philanthropy in addressing those needs.

Undergraduate

Critical Language Scholarships

The United States Department of State’s Critical Languages Scholarship program provides fully funded, group-based intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences.  CLS program participants are expected to continue their language study beyond the scholarship and apply their critical language skills in their future professional careers.

Bryan Dooley ’12 will study Chinese in China on a Critical Language Scholarship.

Olivia Hipkins ’14 will study Arabic in Oman on a Critical Language Scholarship.

Nuquist Award for Vermont History Research

The Nuquist Award is presented to an undergraduate student (or recent graduate) who has completed outstanding yearlong research on a Vermont topic.

Rachel Zakrasek ’10 won this year for her thesis titled “Vulnerability and Adaptation in Vermont: Agriculture, Society, Ecology, and Climate Change.”