Oberlin Boasts Three Watson Winners

If you received a cool $22,000 with instructions to leave the country for one year, what would you do? Seniors Jonathan Curley, Aya Kanai and Adam Smith are about to find out, as each has been awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship and will spend next year globe trotting on an expenses-paid, one-of-a-kind learning experience.

Adam Smith, hailing from Ontario, will make tracks for the colder regions, pursuing "The Arts of the Arctic" in Siberia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Svalbard, Iceland and Greenland. Smith plans to "travel around the populated arctic regions of the world in search of art."

Tree people: Watson winners will soon make for distant continents. (photo by Lindsay Sharp)

New Yorker Aya Kanai is headed for Japan, Czech Republic and Poland in search of experimental theaters, and will be engaged in "Experimental Puppet Theater."

Washington state native Jonathan Curley will be exploring the intricacies of "Environment & Dialogue in Rural Communities" in Bolivia, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala.

"It's an unusual and fabulous thing to be asked 'What do you most want to do?'" Curley said of his application experience. Indeed, that is what the Watson Fellowship is all about: sending a graduate wherever they want for a highly creative, independent year of experiential learning. Fellows may visit any country anywhere they wish, so long as there is no U.S. State Department Travel Warning or U.S. Treasury Department Embargo.

Interaction with local people is a driving motivation behind these projects: Curley said that he "will get to know kids, share games I know with kids. At the same time I will talk with folks about local environmental issues."

Kanai looks forward to "spending four months in each location working at puppet theaters as an apprentice."

And Smith hopes to "enter into a discussion with those I meet in the polar regions about art of the North."

When asked how it felt to win, the answers ranged from "Honored, surprised," to the declaration, "I am scared."

A 32-year-old establishment, the Watson Fellowship Foundation encourages an endless variety of projects, all of the applicants' own devising. The sum total is a period in which they can have a break from prescribed educational and career patterns in order to explore with thoroughness a particular interest. It is hoped that they will develop a more informed sense of international concern.

Oberlin Watson liaison Laurie McMillin said that this year's applicant pool was "extremely strong," with 34 total students, including five double-degrees. Oberlin is one of 50 liberal arts colleges in the nation that participates in the program, with each school nominating four or fewer candidates each year, and only 60 Fellowships are granted. Oberlin traditionally has one or two recipients; this year, Wellesley was the only other college with three.

When asked to describe the consummate Watson candidate, McMillin said, "Creative, independent, and highly motivated. It demands somebody who's got self-confidence.

Oberlin has a habit of producing independent thinkers, and it is little wonder that we should continue our tradition of producing Watson Fellows. They have already begun planning for next year's Fellows.