Bowdoin students have once again successfully competed for several annually awarded national fellowships and scholarships. Two students have been awarded Goldwater scholarships, one student will receive a Watson fellowship, and five students so far have been selected to receive a Fulbright. Bowdoin students have had great success in achieving these awards in previous years, and the addition of a new Fellowships and Scholarships Faculty Committee has strengthened the process, according to Director of the Career Planning Center Anne Shields.
Selena McMahan '05 won a Watson Fellowship, which consists of a $22,000 stipend that she will use for a self-designed international independent study. Beginning in July, McMahan will travel to countries in Africa, Asia, and South America, where she will explore and participate in one of her favorite activities: clowning. McMahan will work with Clowns Without Borders and other clowning programs to help bring hope to people who have experienced trauma. Additionally, she hopes to learn about other cultures through clowning.
"Clowns are a part of every culture, and I'm looking forward to learning about different clowning traditions in other countries," McMahan said.
The Fulbright is also designed to allow seniors to gain cross-cultural understanding by spending one academic year conducting research or studying abroad. Students are given Full Grants, Travel Grants, and/or Teaching Assistantships, and are awarded the Fulbright based on their project proposals. Students are awarded Fulbrights at different times depending upon which country they hope to spend their year in, and not all Bowdoin students have heard back yet.
So far, five seniors have received the Fulbright. Dan Coogan, Kevin Erspamer, Ted Reinert, and Whit Schrader will spend next year in Germany, and Sam Downing will go to Uruguay.
"In Uruguay, I plan to study the politics of urbanization and development," Downing said, who is interested Latin American politics, urban studies, and architecture and looks forward to the opportunity to combine his passion for all three subject areas.
Schrader has known since his first semester at Bowdoin that he wanted to apply for the Fulbright. Schrader visited Germany as a high school student, and embraced the culture and made strong connections and close friends.
"I knew I had to go back," Schrader said, who is double majoring in Neuroscience and German.
This year, two Bowdoin students won the Barry M. Goldwater scholarship, which is a $7,500 scholarship given to outstanding students in mathematics, science, and engineering. Students are asked to write about an issue or a problem specific to their field of study.
Ethan Van Arnam '07 and Lucy Van Hook '06 competed against 1,091 nominated students for the award, which can be used to cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board. Van Arnam, who is interested in organic synthesis, wrote about the project he worked on last summer in the lab of Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Paul W. Baures. Although Van Arnam is very interested in organic chemistry, he is trying to explore all the field has to offer.
"It's a huge field with a lot of options," Van Arnam said.
Van Hook, an Environmental Studies and Biology double major, has interest in land conservation and hopes to pursue a degree in field-based ecology. Van Hook wrote about her experience last summer monitoring turtle movement at Merrymeeting Bay, a project she will continue this summer.
Bowdoin was recognized last fall as being among the colleges with the highest number of Fulbright students. Since then, the College has since established a permanent Faculty Fellowships Committee, which has spent hours interviewing and helping scholarship and fellowship applicants. Last Friday, the committee held a reception to honor all students who had applied for fellowships this year.
Shields noted that one of the advantages of having a year-round faculty committee is that committee members can continue to work with and aid students who have applied for but have not received awards. Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry David Page, a member of the Committee, added that students should recognize that the awards are not an end in themselves.
"They are a part of the liberal arts process," he said.