Six Students Win Rockefeller Grant

Six graduating seniors had their dreams of world travel fulfilled last week when they were awarded the Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Fellowship.

The students, who were selected from a pool of 77 applicants, will each receive $16,000 to travel next year to a country of their choice.

The students awarded the fellowship are Brian J. Boyle ’03, Arianne R. Cohen ’03, Jennifer S. Leath ’03, Claire W. Lehmann ’03, Dominika L. Seidman ’03 and Luke P. Winston ’03.

The students—who were required to submit a detailed travel plan as part of their application—will spread out over Asia, Africa and South America following graduation.

Boyle, who will travel to India, said his interest in that country was first piqued last spring in Literature and Arts C-18, “Hindu Myth, Image and Pilgrimage.”

He plans to spend his year working on improving basic education and health care in the northern part of the country.

“The lifestyle in the part of India I’m going to is very, very basic—I’m looking to shock my system,” Boyle said.

Lehmann, a visual and environmental studies concentrator, also listed India as her destination.

Lehmann said she is looking forward to working with Indian artists who use traditional methods to make religious icons. She said she wants to use the experience to explore the place of art and artists in Indian society.

“I’ve spent so much time and energy in the last four years on art, and while I know I want to continue making art, I’m hoping this experience will provide a better framework of understanding,” she said.

Cohen, a Crimson editor and a women’s studies concentrator, said Harvard’s cultural studies courses partly contributed to her decision to work in Phnom Penh as a reporter for the Cambodia Daily News, where half of the staff writes in English and the other half in Khmer—a language she will be learning on the job.

“I’m fascinated by Cambodia both on intellectual and humanitarian levels. Given its political upheavals, having an unbiased news source is one of the most important things the country needs,” Cohen said.

Cohen, who said she hopes to pursue a career as a writer, said she is looking to hone her writing skills her year in Cambodia.

Seidman will work in public service in Quito, the capital of Ecuador.

She plans to work to improve the conditions of sex workers through education, housing and alternative employment.

“Many involved in sex work are forced into it because of economic situations, and while it’s sometimes unrealistic for them to do something else, we try to make conditions as humane as possible,” she said.

Seidman, who is a social studies concentrator, said she plans to attend medical school in the future and eventually work in a small community clinic. But she said that in the meantime she is looking for a new experience.

“I’m really excited to go somewhere completely new to me, to put me completely outside my comfort zone,” Seidman said.

For Boyle and Seidman, who celebrated their 21st birthday last Saturday, the fellowship came as a welcome birthday surprise.

“It’s the best gift I could ever imagine,” said Seidman. “The fellowship is my number-one plan after graduation.”

—Staff writer Yingzhen Zhang can be reached at zhang9@fas.harvard.edu.