The Bowdoin Orient

April 6, 2001
Volume CXXXII, Number 20

Three students receive Watson Fellowships

by ORIENT STAFF

   Bowdoin students Jared Hickman '99, Andrew Mountcastle '01, and Isabella Sarkisyan '01 have been awarded Thomas J. Watson Foundation fellowships, allowing them to pursue independent research projects while traveling outside the United States for one year after their graduation this year.
   Sarkisyan's project is entitled "Bridging Borders: Young People Building Peace." She will be travelling to five divided societies: Northern Ireland, South Africa, Cyprus, Macedonia, and the Republic of Georgia.
   The purpose of her research is to explore the unique role of young people in peacebuilding and how particular initiatives such as peace camps, coexistence workshops, dialogue groups, and bi-communal projects encourage the next generation to break the cycle of violence and prejudice.
   Sarkisyan said, "I believe that young people have an enormous potential for peacebuilding because they are still young enough to experience profound psychological and perceptual changes, yet mature enough to understand the importance and difficulty of the challenges they face."
   Mountcastle's project is entitled "The Cultural Response to Whale and Dolphin Strandings."
   With his Watson Fellowship, Mountcastle will study the cultural response to whale and dolphin strandings in several countries, including the Azores Islands (Portugal), Scotland, the Faroe Islands (Denmark), Norway, and New Zealand.
   His research will involve exploring the relationship between the scientific and public sectors of a community as they deal with the issues that arise from marine mammal strandings.
   He will be conducting research in affected communities and through local marine conservation organizations, stranding networks and research institutions.
   Hickman's project is entitled "The Magic Worldview of Latin American Folk Catholicism." He will be traveling to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia.
   Sixty fellowships were awarded to college seniors across the country, and this year's Thomas J. Watson Fellows will travel to more than 90 countries on six continents while investigating topics like the design of roller coasters, the classification of tropical frogs, monastic gardens, craters of Australia's outback, the role of youth in peacemaking, racial constructs among the deaf, Tuvan throat singing, dolphin and whale strandings, and the international art market.
   This year, more than 1,000 students from 50 selective private liberal arts colleges and universities applied for these awards. Students must first be nominated by their college or university and then compete on a national level.
   Watson Fellows will each receive $22,000 for their year of travel and study. This year of travel provides Fellows an opportunity to take stock of themselves, test their aspirations and abilities, pursue their own in-depth study, and develop a more informed sense of international concern.
   The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program was created in 1968 by the children of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., the founder of IBM Corporation, and his wife, Jeannette K. Watson, to honor their parents' long-standing interest in education and world affairs.
   The program identifies prospective leaders and allows them to develop their independence and to become world citizens. Watson Fellows span academic majors from physics to fine arts, and 20 percent of them are minorities.
   More than 2,300 Watson Fellows have gone on to become college presidents and professors, CEOs of major corporations, politicians, artists, lawyers, diplomats, doctors, and researchers.
   "We look for bright, creative, independently-minded individuals who have the personality and drive to become leaders," says Tori Haring-Smith, executive director of the Watson Fellowship Program and a former Watson Fellow.
   The Watson Foundation continues to believe that the investment in Watson Fellows is an effective contribution to the global community.