The number of fellowships, grants and scholarships received this year by Whitman juniors and seniors exceeded expectations. Record numbers of Whitman juniors and seniors were awarded prestigious Fulbright Fellowships, Watson Fellowships and Truman Scholarships.
Six graduating seniors were recipients of Fulbright Fellowships. The Fulbright Program is considered to be the flagship of America’s international educational exchange programs. It provides students with grants to undertake graduate study, to conduct academic research and to teach English as a foreign language around the world.
Grant Margeson, Janna Stone and Suzanne Zitzer accepted their grants. Margeson and Stone were awarded English Teaching Assistant Fulbrights to Germany. Zitzer was awarded a Research Fulbright to Germany to study environmental and alternative energy policy.
Zitzer developed her research project from her study abroad experience in Germany. “I was interested in alternative energy policy because I had started learning a lot about renewables in Germany and I want to go on in the field of international environmental policy focusing on alternative energy,” said Zitzer.
Zitzer’s proposed research includes interviewing German politicians and environmentalists, reviewing government documents regarding energy policy and visiting wind and solar power plants. She plans to write an article about her research and findings to be published in an American journal.
Kika Pyclik, a Fulbright recipient, declined her award in order to pursue other options.
Mark Prentice, another recipient, declined his Fulbright to accept the grant he received from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, or the German Academic Exchange Service. With the grant, he will pursue a two-year master’s degree in American Studies at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin.
“I thought that studying at the John F. Kennedy Institute,  particularly during an election year, would be a unique opportunity  to see how other nations see and understand the United States, both past and present,” said Prentice.
Eric Andersen declined his Fulbright to accept his Watson Fellowship.
Andersen, along with graduating seniors Joseph Bornstein and Teal Greyhavens, received one of the only 50 Watson Fellowships awarded nationwide this year. Whitman was the only school to receive three recipients this year and has not received this number of recipients since 1996. The Watson Fellowship Program provides students with a one-year grant of $25,000 to be used for independent study and travel outside of the United States to delve deeply into an area of personal interest.
The project Andersen will pursue with his grant is titled “Re-Presenting the Absent: Memorials and Historical Memory.” He will travel to Austria, Poland, Cambodia, Vietnam, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Rwanda to visit and view memorials and public art in the hope of understanding how physical reminders of past violence reshape the physical spaces and the historical memory of a people.
“Memorials represent an intersection between some of my current interests in aesthetic philosophy, historical memory and how we come to terms with violence and disciplines in which I have long been interested but have not yet had time to pursue, such as art history and architecture,” said Andersen.
Bornstein’s project, “Philosophies and Strategies of Sustainable Community Development,” will send him to Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Ecuador, Mali and India. Part of his travels will include volunteering with organizations involved in sustainable community development.
Greyhavens’ project, “Moving Picture around the World,” will examine the role of cinema and its affect on its audience around the world.
“I will travel to Edinburgh, Mumbai, Hong Kong and possibly Paris and Ouagadougou to make a documentary film about the impact of movies and stories at different cinematic focal points around the world. I have loved movies for a long time and am fascinated by their potential,” said Greyhavens.
Juniors Erica Goad and Caitlin Schoenfelder each received one of the 65 Truman Scholarships awarded nationwide this year. Whitman has never had two Truman recipients in one year and it is also the only small college to receive two recipients this year. Truman Scholarships award $30,000 to students who wish to attend graduate school in preparation for careers in government, the nonprofit or advocacy sectors, education or in other public service sectors.
The scholarships also provide recipients with leadership training, graduate school counseling, priority admission and additional financial aid at some premiere graduate institutions and internship opportunities with federal agencies.
“As of now, I’m interested in going into education. I constructed my application around the idea of teaching in bilingual classrooms and then going on into a graduate program where I could look at the different intersections of larger social issues, such as immigration, with education and the classroom. I’m interested in possibly going on to serve as a superintendent of a school district or to eventually research and design pilot programs,” said Schoenfelder.
