April
23,
2004
MHC
Students Win Fellowships
Photo by Todd M. LeMieux
Fellowship awardees, from
left to right: Kathryn Rose '06, Aileen Beltran '04,
and Meghan Mead '04
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April showers
bring … more good news from student fellowship organizations
for Mount Holyoke students.
Meghan Mead '04, from North Canaan, Connecticut, has won a prestigious
Congress-Bundestag grant for a year's study and internship in Germany.
Mead has pursued a double major in history and economics, concentrating on modern
European history. "I am particularly intrigued by German history," she
said. "I love German culture and want to learn more about the country and
the
language."
Mead will participate in a three-phase program starting next fall: the first
part is a two-month intensive language study program in southwest Germany. Next,
Mead will live with a family and attend school for four months. The last five
months, Mead will have a full-time internship with a business or non-profit organization.
After her year in Germany, Mead is considering attending law school.
Kathryn Rose '06, from North Dighton, Massachusetts, has received a Goldwater
scholarship for her work and promise in biochemistry. Katya King, the Career
Development Center's assistant director of fellowships, said, "It
is unusual for a sophomore to win this award." The scholarship provides
funding for tuition and books for junior year and is renewable for senior year.
Rose, a double major in biochemistry and French, is working with chemistry professor
Darren Hamilton, Mary E. Woolley Assistant Professor of Chemistry, on an independent
study; her adviser is Sean Decatur, chair and associate professor of chemistry. "The
school has an amazing science faculty," Rose said. "The support I've
had is unbelievable."
Rose has been interested in science since middle school, but it was general chemistry
in high school that got her hooked. "I really got excited about chemistry,
and I also took biology. I'm majoring in biochemistry because I am interested
in the intersection of the two fields." Rose plans to go to graduate school
in bioorganic chemistry. "I am interested in making small organic molecules
and seeing how they apply to biological systems," she said.
Aileen Beltran '04 , from Athens, Georgia, will spend next year in the
Philippines on a Fulbright Fellowship. Beltran has long been interested in child
welfare, and she designed her own major in child advocacy. The child of two Filipino
emigrés, Beltran plans to study varying cultural notions of child labor
by examining Filipino yayas, girls hired as child caregivers by wealthy Filipino
families. Beltran said she did preliminary research on this subject in a class
she took during her junior year in Amsterdam and looks forward to exploring it
in greater depth.
Beltran described her mood as "nervous, excited, overwhelmed, and extremely
grateful for this long-anticipated opportunity." She said she hopes her
research will help improve child labor conditions in the Philippines. She plans
to go to graduate school in public policy and work with an organization such
as UNICEF.
All award recipients have expressed gratitude to Katya King for helping them
through the application process.
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