Von Reis Crooks, a biology major from Bainbridge Island, Washington, won a Watson Fellowship to study wolf conservation efforts in Canada, Spain, and Sweden as well as the political and cultural conflicts that underlie the battles over those efforts. Watson Fellowships are $25,000 one-year grant for independent study and travel outside the United States.
“People are so black and white in the way they feel toward wolves,” says von Reis Crooks. “I want to get a better perspective as to why we are still having such troubles here with conserving this charismatic and challenging species.”
Hottman, an economics and German major from Arden Hills, Minnesota, won a German Academic Exchange Service award that will pay for a year of graduate study in that country. She wrote her Macalester honors thesis on a novel by Goethe and plans to continue working on that project while also taking classes at the University of Bonn. And she has one final goal: “I’m hoping to live with only German students, take all my classes in German, and become fluent in the language by the time I return to the United States.”
White, an economics and Japanese major from Denver, won a Fulbright award that will take him to Japan to research why consumers often choose domestic products over foreign ones. He’ll be specifically looking at the video game market. “If I can understand how these consumers and game developers are interacting, I should be able to use that information to help American companies better appeal to Japanese audiences and vice versa,” he says.
Sethi, an economics major from New Delhi and Dubai, won a Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Award. She competed against students from across the globe for the $3,000 award, which also includes the chance to attend an upcoming leadership institute with world business and political leaders.
Last summer Sethi and some friends led a successful microfinance project in a New Delhi slum. This summer she will work with an NGO in India on education and health issues. She is gearing all her educational and vocational efforts, she says, toward her ultimate goal: “To empower underprivileged women and girls in rural India.”
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