Macalester recently announced its nominees for the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, a grant that gives students the opportunity to pursue a one-year independent project outside of the United States. Watson Fellows receive a stipend of $22,000 as well as an amount of money equal to a twelve month payment of an outstanding federal or institutional student loan.

This year’s nominees, Helen Baker ’04, Lindsay Goss ’04, Rick Lechowick ’04 and Aaron Malone ’04, have been interviewed by Watson staff. All or none of them may be among the 50 applicants chosen from a total pool of 200 student nominees.

Recipients of the fellowship will travel to any number of chosen countries, with the restrictions that they not travel to countries in which they have had significant experiences, such as study abroad, or to countries with a U.S. State Department travel warning or under a U.S. Treasury Department Embargo. Recipients are not allowed to return to the United States during their fellowship year.

The fellowship is limited to graduating seniors. Those interested must submit applications by Oct. 15. After a student applies, two selection processes occur. According to Dean of Students Ellen Guyer, Macalester’s internal selection process is conducted by four faculty members and herself and consists of analysis of written materials and an interview.

The Watson Foundation then sends an executive committee member to each campus to interview its nominees. Three individual selection committees make the final selections, which are announced on March 15.

Guyer stressed the importance of the interview in the selection process. She said that “the Watson only gives money—no safety net.” The interview, according to Guyer, evaluates applicants’ passion, resourcefulness and the feasibility of their purposes.

Malone, a biology major, hopes to compare local and outside perspectives of wilderness areas in Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Mongolia. He plans to travel to wilderness areas and camp with both local and traveling groups.

Lechowick, majoring in religious studies and classics, said he will look at the ways that the Ramayana, an Indian epic with broad reach and influence, manifests itself in the music and dance of Northern and Southern India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Goss, an English major, said that she will travel with modern pilgrims on four pilgrimages. She will examine how conveniences have affected these journeys. Although she will not be able to accompany the Muslim pilgrims on their journey to Mecca because Saudi Arabia is on the list of countries with a U.S. State Department travel warning, she will observe the preparation process and accompany pilgrims on part of their journey in Morocco and Egypt. She will also participate in pilgrimages in Spain, Japan and India.

Baker, an anthropology major, intends to study he changing role of knitting on island communities. Through interactions with local knitters, she plans to examine how knitting has changed from a necessity to a hobby. She will travel to Iceland, as well as islands between Iceland and Scotland and off the coasts of Ireland, Sweden and Estonia. At each location she will knit a garment in the knitting pattern specific to the island.

Guyer said that the Watson Fellowship is the most creative of grants offered to students, allowing them to define on their own terms what they want to do. The Watson Foundation requires that students be independently in control of their projects. To that end, fellowship guidelines require that a recipient’s primary activities be unrelated to involvement with a foreign institution or volunteer organization. She said that former recipients of Watson Fellowships have “come back with a pretty clear sense of strengths and an increased level of self confidence.”

Recipients are asked to submit a two- to three-page summary of their progress every three months, along with a final report and financial accounting.

This is Macalester’s fifth year as one of 50 participating institutions. Two students were awarded grants each year during its first three years and no students were chosen last year.