Amy Harff ’21, Jiin Jeong ’21, and Liam Prum ’21 have been awarded the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, granting them each a $36,000 stipend to pursue independent explorations abroad. Their projects express the ways they plan to blend their academic interests with their aspirations to make meaningful changes in the world. The Watson Fellowship is awarded to graduating seniors nominated by one of 41 partner institutions.
Harff’s project is Mother Earth’s Artists: Inspiring Environmental Action on Islands. She plans to travel to the North Island of New Zealand, the Seychelles, Taiwan, Marshall Islands, and Svalbard. Harff says that these specific islands are home to rich art communities centered around creating work and raising awareness about climate change and environmental issues. Her project takes on an intersectional approach as she is concentrating on artists marginalized from the art world due to their physical location, gender, race, and ethnicity. Harff double majors in environmental studies and studio art at Hamilton.
For Jiin Jeong’s project, Recoding Literacy: Exploring the Computer Science Education Boom, she will use her knowledge as a computer science (CS) and economics double major to study broadly the intersection of CS and society. Jeong plans to travel to Kenya, Singapore, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates to study the digital divide and the ways accessibility to CS education can be addressed in underrepresented communities.
Liam Prum majors in government and minors in environmental studies and is an aspiring farmer. His project, “Food Sovereignty, Traditions, and the Pressure to Adapt,” will bring him to Ethiopia, India, Guatemala, and Peru. He plans to visit farming communities to learn why farmers blend agricultural traditions and modernized practices, along with how they navigate the intersecting challenges of the changing environment and globalization.
The normal departure date for the Fellows is August 1 of the award year.
The Watson Foundation
mandates that graduating seniors must only remain outside countries that are
US State Department Level 3 or 4
(or areas within countries listed as “Do Not Travel” and “Reconsider Travel”), on
US Treasury Sanction
, or designated
CDC Level 3
. Sometime later this month, the Foundation will officially inform the Fellows if they can start their exploration on time, or if they must postpone their travels. Harff and Prum plan to defer their projects until August 2022 in the hopes of avoiding the potential complications posed by the pandemic. Jeong is waiting to see what the Foundation announces and continues to monitor the travel restrictions and progress of the countries she plans to visit.
For more information on the three recipients’ projects:
https://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/watson-fellowships-harff-jeong-prum
