April 21, 1999
Three Middlebury College Students Awarded Watson
Fellowships
All of Middlebury’s Nominees Received the Award
For the first time since 1969, the entire roster
of Middlebury College students nominated by the College for the
prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship received the award. Three
seniors—Megan Hankins of Hampstead, Md.; Stephanie Saldana of
San Antonio, Texas; and John Mauro of Auburn, Maine, have been
awarded 1999 fellowships.
Watson Fellows are chosen in a two-step process that
requires nomination from one of the participating 49 top liberal
arts colleges in America, followed by a national competition.
After more than 1,000 students applied to the first round of selection,
60 Watson Fellows were chosen. Each student will receive $22,000
to travel outside the United States and explore a topic of his
or her own choosing.
“It is amazing to think that we won three out
of three this year,” said Arlinda Wickland, director of student
fellowships and scholarships at Middlebury. “We could say
it’s not really surprising considering the caliber of our
nominees. But our selection committee is quite mindful that we
are competing with top colleges who also have very strong nominees.
That realization keeps us humble and focused.”
Hankins’ project, entitled “Building the Natural
Environment: A Study of Zoo Architecture,” will take her
to Germany, England, Australia, and Japan to visit zoos in each
country and study their architecture. As an architecture major,
she plans to examine and compare the very different attitudes
of each country towards displaying animals, and how these nations
treat public and recreational spaces in general. Hankins will
leave in August to begin her project.
Mauro, an environmental studies major with a conservation
biology focus, will travel to Ghana, Australia, and Bhutan for
his study project, titled “The Role of Creation Stories in
the Perception of the Natural World.” He will spend time
with indigenous peoples in each country, learning of their folklore
and examining how the myths and stories affect their perception
of nature and ecology. Mauro will photograph subjects and tape-record
the stories he hears, which he will then gather into a multimedia
presentation of slides and recordings geared toward school-age
audiences. He will leave for his fellowship studies in July or
August.
Saldana, an English major with a creative writing
focus, will spend 12 months in Italy and Israel exploring for
her project, titled “Writing within the Christian Millennium.”
She plans to write poetry inspired by her discovery of these cities
and their Christian heritage, by the writings of the Bible, and
by her experience as a witness of the pilgrimages many Christians
will make to these cities in celebration of 2,000 years of Christianity
and the new millennium. She will leave in mid-July to spend five
months each in Jerusalem and Rome, and two months in the Italian
city of Assisi.
In honor of their parents’ long-standing interest
in education and world affairs, the children of Jeannette K. Watson
and her husband Thomas J. Watson, Jr., the founder of IBM, created
the Watson Fellowship Program in 1968. The Thomas J. Watson Foundation
selects students based upon each nominee’s character, academic
record, leadership potential, willingness to delve into another
culture, and the personal significance of the proposed project.
More than 2,000 Watson Fellows have taken this challenging
journey in the 30-year history of the foundation. The Fellowship
Program was instructed by Thomas J. Watson, Jr. to look for seriously
creative people, according to Executive Director Noreen Tuross.
Referring to the 185 interviews conducted this year in the final
round of competition, Tuross said, “We found an abundance
of creativity, intelligence, and integrity from which to choose.”
The Watson Foundation continues to believe that the investment
in Watson Fellows is an effective contribution to the global community.