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Ruth Goldstein is one of four seniors nominated by Wes for the Watson fellowship. Her dog really hopes she makes it.

This year, four seniors have been nominated by the University for the Watson fellowship. 

Every year The Thomas J. Watson Foundation gives 60 students $22,000 each in order to pursue a special interest after graduation. The students must go through a multi-tiered selection process which whittles down the possible candidates from a pool of over 1000 college seniors from 50 liberal arts universities including Hamilton, Williams, Bowdoin, and Wesleyan.

To be nominated for the fellowship at Wesleyan, each interested senior must submit a three page proposal about his or her intended projects according to Dean Louise Brown. This year Wesleyan has nominated four seniors.

Lindsay Fransen’s ’01 project is entitled "Conservation with a Human Face: Living Off the Land in Guatemala, Bolivia, Uganda and the Philippines" and deals with ecological conservation in third world areas.

Ruth Goldstein ’01 authored the proposal "Women’s Reproductive Health and Rights: The Dialectic of Implementation" 

Adam Goss ’01 wrote "The Scornful Mother: The Active Volcano as Cultural Nurturer and Destroyer," which focuses on how active volcanoes shape cultural development.

Sonya Penn ’01 wrote "Restorative Justice for Juvenile Offenders as Conflict Resolution" about alternatives in the judicial system. 

"What we ask for at this level of the proposals is that students write a proposal about what they are going to do, how they are going to do at and why they should be the ones to do it," said Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Judith Brown.

Should any of these students win one of the fellowship positions they will spend the next year abroad in the country or countries relevant to their research according to Brown. The fellows are expected to live and work with the $22,000 they are given, and are not allowed to earn any outside income, explained Brown. 

However, as Brown said, "they [the Foundation] also pay back the first year of student loan payments so that it enables students to take advantage of the fellowship." 

According to Brown, since the fellowship’s creation in 1968, Wesleyan students have made up as many as four of the 60 seniors nationwide chosen for the fellowship. To be accepted for the fellowship, the nominated students must write a larger, five page proposal as well as a five page personal statement and go through a lengthy interview process with both Wesleyan staff and members of the Watson Fellowship committee.

"I feel really great about it, it’s a real privilege. I’m really glad the committee liked my project," said Goss, who plans to work in Italy, Costa Rica, and Cameroon if he is accepted for the fellowship.

"I think it’s an incredible opportunity and a lot of money to give to someone," said Penn, who wants to work in Australia, South Africa, and Northern Ireland to study what she calls "an alternative to the traditional justice system" which, instead of focusing "on punishment they [the nations] are more focused on bringing both sides of the conflict together".

Out of the 50 students chosen for the fellowship there are approximately 200 seniors nominated from the 50 schools. This year’s Watson fellows will be announced in March.