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With a record eight winners of Fulbright Fellowships among them, this year's Smith scholars have marked several firsts in garnering an unprecedented number of prestigious and highly competitive academic awards.
Participants in Smith's fellowships program, as well as faculty and staff members who assisted the process, were congratulated by President Carol T. Christ during a celebration on May 1 at the College Club.
"I know from my own experience the very process of applying [for fellowships] teaches you about yourself and helps you define your goals," she said. "By representing yourself to others, you realize what you are. I would like to give particular congratulations to those of you who have won fellowships. We have a bumper crop; I am very pleased by your success."
The Fulbright Fellowships are intended to support students' study abroad in their post-graduate scholarship. Five of the recipients will graduate this month; the remainder are Smith alumnae. Merrill Baker ’03 will travel to Madagascar to study “Ecotourism: Livelihoods After the Political Crisis of 2002." Radha Blackman ’92, will go to Bulgaria to study “International Communication for Civic and English Language Education." Catherine Campbell ’03 will go to Trinidad and Tobago for her project “Dengue: Serological Survey of Children and PCR Screening of Mosquitoes." Christina Gosack will study “Measuring the Success of Microcredit” in Senegal. Samantha Martin ’98 will go to Greece to explore “The Paradoxical Relationship of the Stoa in Ancient Greek Civic Topography." Ann Scagel ’98 will travel to Korea for Teaching English as a Foreign Language, and Hannah Wenzel ’03 will do the same in Germany. And Chong-Hye Yi ’03 will travel to Russia to research "Ethnic-Korean Russian Migrant Workers Reviving Korean Identity in Eastern Russia."
Also for the first time, a Smith student, Elizabeth Callaghan AC04, has been awarded a Udall Scholarship, given in the name of Morris K. Udall for excellence in national environmental policy. Callaghan plans to pursue her environmental interests by imparting the importance of ecological literacy as a high-school teacher.
As well, a record three students have received DAAD fellowships, which are intended to promote the study of cultural, political, historical, economic and social aspects of contemporary German issues. The DAAD scholars are Romney Haylett ’02, Lisa Unangst ’03 and Karyn Wheeler ’03, all of whom as juniors attended Smith’s JYA program in Hamburg. Unangst plans to study popular German writer Karl May’s construction of the Wild West from an American perspective. Wheeler will research the extent of the Swingjugend, a jazz-fan youth movement, as a Nazi resistance force.
Also, Sarah Winawer-Wetzel ’05 is the first Smith student to win a DAAD Undergraduate Scholarship and plans to attend Smith’s JYA Hamburg program next year.
They join the following fellowship winners:
-Alyson Shaw ’04, Beinecke Scholarship
-Kimberly Sullivan ’03, Humanity in Action Fellowship, with which she will study in Copenhagen
-Rachel Balsham ’05, Boren Scholarship; and Stephanie Jakus ’05, Boren Scholarship.
Also, three students, Bethany Hamblen ’03, Anne Miller ’03, and Teresa Winstead ’99, have been accepted at Cambridge University.
And Damiana Astudillo-Eterno ’03, a past Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellow, was awarded a $40,000 annual scholarship to attend the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
"Your success both enriches you, in providing means and opportunity to study, and enriches the college," Christ said. "It demonstrates in the judgment of people outside the college what we know inside-the extraordinary quality of our students and the excellence of a Smith education. Wherever you pursue your studies, I hope that the things you have learned at Smith continue to enrich your life."
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