Bowdoin's Watson Fellowship and Fulbright Fellowship nominees this year are a diverse group of students, but they all share an important trait: passion.
Watson fellows travel for a year outside of the United States or their country of origin, studying whatever they choose. Unlike many academic fellowships, Watson participants do not need to produce any specific body of work during their period of travel.
Unlike the Watson Fellowship, the Fulbright Fellowship is an academic grant program that sends Americans abroad to teach and study in foreign countries. The program also brings foreign students to the United States to study.
There are four Bowdoin students who are finalists for Watson Fellowships this year: seniors Nikolai von Keller, Jennifer Renteria, Cotton Estes, and Jordan Schiele. Bowdoin also has seven Fulbright Fellowship applicants, including Dawn Riebeling '07, Jordan Krechmer '07, and two alumni.
For both of these competitive fellowships, nominees must put together proposals, present them, and undergo an interview process.
One of this year's nominees, Nikolai von Keller '07, is applying for both a Watson and a Fulbright. If accepted to both, he said he would choose the Watson because it would allow him to travel more extensively.
Von Keller's Watson proposal involves studying different poetic traditions and their contextual roots and influences. His proposed itinerary includes South America to study Pablo Neruda's poetry, Japan for its haiku masters, and the Caribbean to study Derek Walcott's poetry.
"The language barrier is not the difference," explained von Keller. He will look at the cultural influences of someone like Walcott, who has a Western education but writes poetry that is not Western in its scope.
Von Keller's Fulbright proposal is to teach English in Indonesia through the foreign language teaching assistant program.
"It's the most different place I could think of," said von Keller about his choice of destination.
Von Keller first became interested in travel during his study abroad in Barcelona, Spain, which, as he put it, "whet my appetite for foreign travel."
Both of these fellowships are a chance to "do something radically different," he added.
Renteria, another Watson nominee, has proposed a project that focuses on the role of public transportation, which she will research in cities ranging from South America to England and Turkey.
Renteria said she will explore her interest in urban planning by looking at "how people define their space and engage with cities."
Her project proposal also incorporates elements of oral history, since she will be interviewing public transit travelers and working with city planners.
Like von Keller, Renteria became interested in traveling and foreign cultures while studying abroad. She studied in Amman, Jordan.
Senior Jordan Schiele is applying for a Watson grant to study trains.
"My project is documenting the legendary bazaar of railraods?the Orient Express, the Trans-Siberian, and the Ghan, to name a few. Trains provide a space for engaging the landscape and the people who live there," he said.
"As an avid reader of travel writing who aspires to be a travel writer, this journey would allow me to communicate the diverse cluster of people these trains carry," Schiele added.
Dawn Riebeling '07 was inspired to apply for a Fulbright grant by "a passion to spend time abroad, immersing myself in another culture from both an academic and a one-on-one, softer, cultural perspective."
Her proposal is to study foreign aid at the European Union's Institute For European Studies in Brussels, Belgium. She is interested in international cooperation and the "politics of reaching a common policy among 25 member states."
"I want to read EU meeting transcripts and reports but, more importantly, sit in on EU meetings and interview representatives to uncover the negotiation process behind the initiative," said Riebeling in an e-mail.
This exploration is one of the express goals of the Watson and Fulbright fellowships: to allow their fellows to expand their knowledge of the world and allow them to travel to areas and cultivate experience they never would have elsewhere.
"I am a big advocate of the Fulbright philosophy that person-to-person exchange?sharing American identity and absorbing perspectives to bring back to the United States?is the foundation for understanding, cooperation, and ultimately, for peace," explained Riebeling.
Renteria described the possibilities for the Watson Fellowship as "pretty limitless, anything you want it to be."
The nominees also said that they wanted to have a radically different experience before they settle down to a job in the United States.
"There's a trend set here at Bowdoin, to get a job in Boston or New York, [that's] easy to fall into," von Keller said. "Fellowships are a chance to do something different."
"You learn a lot about yourself," Renteria said. "[It's] nice to dream in that way."
Von Keller stressed the long-term effect of such a fellowship on each participant, and the importance of the experience for personal development.
"Fellowships have an intangible impact on your career and influences whatever you do," he said.