SCHENECTADY, NY -- Union College senior Rebecca Wentworth, a member of the women's crew team, is one of four students who have been nominated by Union College for consideration for the prestigious Watson Fellowship.

The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program offers a one-year grant to graduating college seniors “of unusual promise” to study independently outside the United States. The stipend for individual award winners is $25,000.

“The Watson Fellowship is an extraordinary opportunity for our students and a great privilege for us,” said visual arts professor David Ogawa, chair of Union's Watson Fellowship Committee. “It makes it possible for students to spend a year exploring the passions they have developed here at Union.”

Union's Watson committee also includes Maggie Tongue, director of Postgraduate Fellowships, and professors Charles Batson (Modern Languages and Literatures), Seyffie Maleki (Physics), and Elizabeth Garland (Anthropology), a former Watson Fellow. A member of the men's crew team, Andrew Krauss '08, was previously selected and explored “Evolution in Outrigger Canoeing.”

Wentworth, a Chinese major, is active in Engineers Without Borders, the Ski Club, and is also the Co-President of Chabad.  Her project is “Trash Tramping: Investigating Innovative Recycling in the Third World.” Wentworth proposes traveling to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia; in particular, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Laos, Cambodia and India. In these countries, she would explore how people reclaim their trash, create pioneering ways of consuming it and understand the “business” of trash. She plans on living the life of a recycled material, from the exact time it is thrown away to the instant its use is complete. She would study the recycled product's hierarchical waste stream systems by engaging with buyers of the materials.


Comments from Rebecca

Content for this story courtesy of "The Chronicle," which is published weekly by the Union College Office of Communications; Tina Lincer, Editor.

Watson nominees are Timothy Connelly, Aria Walfrand,
Rebecca Wentworth and Samuel Merlin.
(Photo by Frank Rapant).

COMMENTS FROM REBECCA WENTWORTH:

"It's been a long process applying for the Watson, so I'm happy that the application process is complete.  Getting through the drafts and mock interviews, and interview process is far more grueling, and I know that it is the best I could have done, so I can't worry about the outcome.  It's very much like rowing crew in that way: you push off and keeping systematically working your way through the race, not looking at the competition, just focusing on the person guiding you along and your goal.  It's only at the end of the race that you have time to reflect on what happened, and you can't go back and change anything.  The race is over, you can only look back and learn from the experience. 

"In fact applying for the Watson has really helped me to focus my goals overall.  My senior thesis project is a small incarnation of my interest in my proposed Watson project, and through a class that I am taking currently, I am turning the product I have developed into a business.  I've become focused on my career ahead as an engineer for products for people living in extreme poverty and enabling them to use them as a means to lift themselves out of their socio-economic situations.  Besides Watson I have applied for a Fulbright to study sustainable energy technologies in Nigeria, and a Minerva fellowship to establish my product and business plan in Ghana with help from Mike Clark '11.

"Watson has helped me find a path that can lead to opportunities on both a professional level, but most importantly a personal level, and make sure that the work I do is fulfilling for myself and those that it affects in a positive manner."