The Watson Fellowship is a one-year grant for independent exploration and travel outside of the United States in the year following graduation from college.
More information on the Watson Fellowship.
See CTLR Events Calendar for Info Sessions- If you were unable to attend, watch the video below.
Watson Fellowship Info Session (recorded March 2021)
Watch a Watson foundation webinar for more about the Watson experience.
Provides $40,000 to cover one year of travel and related project expenses. It also covers one year of federal and institutional student loans payments. Approximately 40 Watson fellows are selected from 160 candidates nominated by participating institutions.
Seniors, no citizenship restrictions, no GPA restrictions.
Preliminary Application: Submit beginning April 15. This is a flexible deadline.
Nomination Application Deadline: early September TBA
Watson Final Deadline: early November TBA
Look at the visual overview of the application process. Review the Watson Application Process and Guidance
1. Submit a preliminary application in Middlebury Apply to begin the application process. Do this by April 15 if possible, but we accept later applications too. We need this information to register you for the Watson online application. Preview the Watson preliminary application questions.
2. Complete an abbreviated version of the Watson online application and other required items in Middlebury Apply by the September internal nomination deadline. No late applications will be accepted.
3. Selected applicants will be invited to interview with the committee in late September/early October. Four nominees and one alternate will be selected.
4. Nominees will work with the Fellowships advisor in preparing their final application. A representative from the Watson Foundation interviews the nominees on campus late fall or winter. Awardees are notified in mid-March.
Lisa Gates, Associate Dean for Fellowships and Research
Davis Family Library 212
lgates@middlebury.edu
(802) 443-3183
| by Heidi Greenwald
Brett Gilman ’24.5 has been awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, a one-year, $40,000 grant for self-guided exploration outside of the United States. Gilman is an independent scholar who designed his own major around socio-ecological studies in landscape architecture. He plans to travel to five countries—the Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Singapore, and Australia—to study landscape design […]
| by Heidi Greenwald
Aubrianna Wilson returns to Middlebury to share her experience as a Watson Fellow. She will share highlights from her project, “Innovation and Empowerment in Disability Communities.” She collaborated with artists, activists and advocates in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand to understand how disability communities support one another, […]
| by Lisa Gates
Upcoming Watson Fellowship Webinars: Watson’s Fall Informational Webinar will be tomorrow, Thursday, September 19th, from 3:30pm to 4:30pm ET. Watson Fellow Margaret Kraus ’23 will be joining as a guest speaker. In Margaret’s Watson project, Multispecies Kinship and Urban Animals, she explored explored human connections with nonhuman animals in major cities around the world, uncovering interspecies relationships within these concrete […]
