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Three Middlebury College Students Awarded

Watson Fellowships

MIDDLEBURY, Vt.¾For the third year in a row,

three Middlebury College students were awarded Thomas J. Watson

Fellowships. Seniors Amelia Berry of Frankfort, Ky., Jenna Sigman of

Danvers, Mass., and Adina Racoviteanu of Focsani, Romania, are the

recipients of the 2000 fellowships. Middlebury was one of only four

colleges to have three students selected for the award. Each student

will receive $22,000 to travel outside the United States and explore

a topic of his or her own choosing.

Watson Fellows are chosen in a two-step process

that requires nomination from one of the participating 50 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.

Berry’s project, which is titled “The Steel Drum

as Liberation,” will focus on studying the cultural importance of the

steel pan, the proper name for the steel drum. She will travel to

Tobago and Trinidad to play with steel pan bands and learn about the

pan’s community significance. According to Berry, the steel pan was

invented in Tobago and Trinidad. She will then travel to Barbados and

Jamaica to learn to play related percussion instruments.

Berry, a joint major in East Asian studies and

women’s and gender studies, lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, until she was

13 years old and then moved to her current home in Frankfort, Ky. She

became interested in the steel pan when, at age 10, she joined an

after-school program that taught inner-city children to play the

instrument. “The steel pan is a good medium for kids to use their

energy,” said Berry. “It gets them off the streets, and I am grateful

to have had that opportunity.” She said she hopes to start a program

of her own someday.

According to Middlebury College Director of

Student Fellowships and Scholarships Arlinda Wickland, the Middlebury

selection committee was impressed with Berry’s motivation

and talent. “Her project is particularly striking

because she plans to use steel drums as a vehicle for change, as a

positive outlet for inner-city children,” said Wickland.

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Three Middlebury College Students Awarded Watson

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Racoviteanu, the first international student from

Middlebury College to receive the fellowship, plans to study the

geography and religious importance of mountains. Titled “Exploring

Sacred Mountains,” her project will bring her to Nepal, Tanzania,

Cameroon, Peru, and Bolivia. She plans to study different peoples’

religious beliefs and ceremonies to understand how the mountains

around them affect their cultures.

A joint geography and environmental studies major,

Racoviteanu said that she developed an interest in the geography and

cultural importance of mountains at an early age. She grew up in

Romania and has been climbing mountains since childhood. Racoviteanu

plans eventually to pursue a masters in geography as well as a career

in mountain studies.

Sigman, whose project is titled “Penguins:

Catalysts for Conservation Awareness,” plans to combine her love of

penguins and her interest in the environment by studying how penguins

can be used to promote a cleaner world. Her fellowship will take her

to Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and South Africa. Sigman will

volunteer and talk with people, mostly children, in areas where there

are penguin colonies. “My main point is to learn through volunteering

how indigenous cultures use penguins as a conservation tool,” she

said.

In South Africa, Sigman will be working with an

organization that helps to rehabilitate penguins that have been

injured from oil spills. She also plans to try to do some teaching in

the local school district. Sigman is an environmental studies major

with a minor in elementary teacher’s education, and is in the process

of getting her teacher certification.

Sigman has been fascinated with penguins since she

was two years old. She spent one college semester working with them

at the Boston Aquarium. Her ultimate goal is to write a children’s

book about penguins and conservation in each country, she said.

The Watson Fellowship Program was begun in 1968 by

the children of Jeannette K. Watson and her husband Thomas J. Watson,

Jr., the founder of IBM, to honor their parents’ long-standing

interest in education and world affairs. 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.

In the history of the foundation, more than 2,200

Watson Fellows have taken this challenging journey. They have gone on

to become college presidents and professors, chief executive officers

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,” said Tori Haring-Smith, the executive director of

the Watson Foundation 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.