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May 3,
2002
Rachel
Ann Vigour '02: The Family Band Loses a Bassist— the
World Gains a Fulbright Fellow
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Photo: Fred Leblanc
Fulbright
Fellow Rachel Ann Vigour '02
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When Rachel Ann Vigour
'02 arrives at the University of Potsdam next fall on a Fulbright
Fellowship, it will be something of a homecoming. During her junior
year, Vigour was an exchange student at the university, located
on the outskirts of Berlin. Next year, a Fulbright Fellowship
will enable the geology and German major to return to Potsdam
to conduct research in geology, as well as take courses in Russian.
The newly minted "Fulbrighter"
is used to a packed schedule. In addition to her junior-year geology
course work at the University of Potsdam, Vigour also conducted
cocurricular research in biostratigraphy at the Natural History
Museum of Berlin. "It took over an hour to get there, but
I love riding trains," Vigour says. Her research led to a
paper, copublished with her adviser on the project. On top of
it all, she held down a job as a laboratory assistant at Potsdam's
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research.
Vigour, who has enjoyed
serving as a teaching assistant for courses in physical geology
and environmental geology this year, continues to be fascinated
with the geological subfield of biostratigraphy, which uses fossils
to study geologic time. Completing an independent study in biostratigraphy
this year through the University of Massachusetts, Vigour has
again been looking at microfossils, single-celled prehistoric
organisms that are retrieved from the bottom of the ocean floor
by the Ocean Drilling Project (to learn more about the ODP, visit
www.oceandrilling.org).
Says Vigour, "I could look through the microscope at these
things all day long. They're beautiful! They look like stars of
glass, little china dolls, or beautiful sculptures. Each one is
completely different. Last year I studied radiolarians taken from
sediments in the southern Indian Ocean, and this year I am working
with foraminifera from the North Pacific." Without the aid
of a microscope, the sediments seem fairly monotonous, however.
Says Vigour, "They look pretty much like toothpaste no matter
where they're from."
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Photo: Rachel Ann Vigour '02
One
of the foraminifera studied by Vigour. This microfossil
is from the North Pacific.
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With a Fulbright Fellowship,
a published scholarly article, and an MHC diploma in the offing,
Vigour's star is clearly rising, but it didn't always seem so
to the senior from Crozet, Virginia. "I had a really hard
time my first two years at Mount Holyoke," says Vigour. "A
lot of that came from attending a high school where I didn't have
to do much work to get As. As a high school student visiting Mount
Holyoke, Vigour says her impression was that "every one of
the juniors and seniors seemed to have some subject, some purpose
that they were so passionate about, that they could tell everyone
about and work on all the time and never tire." When Vigour
enrolled at Mount Holyoke, she hoped to find some of that purpose
and passion herself. Yet, for a while she felt as though she was
"lacking something. I was just taking classes."
By her second year
at Mount Holyoke, Vigour had taken a number of German studies
courses, but was "floundering around without a major."
She was drawn to Russian and Eurasian studies, particularly through
her class Nomads, Steppes, and Cities. One week when she had been
having roommate problems, she and a friend lived in a yurt on
the green. But she could no longer delay taking a course she had
avoided: the science requirement.
Vigour recalls being
put off the sciences by a high school teacher who had said Vigour
was "not a math-science person." Finally, to satisfy
the requirement, Vigour opted for Michelle Markley's course in
physical geology. "I loved that class!" exclaims Vigour.
"It made sense to me. Understanding how the Earth works is
something I have always been interested in." Within a week,
Vigour had declared a major in geology and by spring break she
had landed a summer job as a geologic tour guide and "fossil
lady" at Time Travel Geologic Tours in Baraboo, Wisconsin.
At this stage, Vigour had already set up her junior year exchange
program in Potsdam. "I thought, ‘Oh no! I hope they
have geology over there.'" As it turned out, the University
of Potsdam's geology department, a.k.a. the Geoscience Institute,
is "fabulous."
Plans for her Fulbright
year at the Geoscience Institute are still taking shape. Vigour
has considered moving from micro to macro, leaving behind—for
the moment—her work with infinitesimal fossils in order to
dive into the combined fields of neotectonics (the study of young
tectonic events) and geomorphology (the study of the forms of
the land's surface and of the processes that mold them). She has
also considered continuing her current independent study while
in Germany. Says Vigour, "I'm still talking through email
with my professors there." In addition to her geologic research,
Vigour will study Russian while at Potsdam. She hopes her interests
in language studies and Earth science will somehow converge through
international research in the future. Given Vigour's drive and
good fortune, it's not difficult to imagine a host of interesting
possibilities for her.
As for the very near
future, before she takes off for Germany Vigour will take time
off from her studies. "This summer," she says, "I'm
not doing any geology research. I'm going to be playing music
with my family and go hiking in the Tetons." A clarinetist
in MHC's klezmer band, back home in Virginia the senior backs
up the Vigour Family Band on string bass and fiddle. "My
family has been playing mountain music since I was really little,"
says Vigour. Old-timey tunes like "Squirrel Heads and Gravy,"
"Cotton-Eyed Joe," and "Old Dan Tucker" are
part of their repertoire, as is the song "Rachel," after
which Vigour's parents named her.
While they miss her
(and her string bass), Vigour's parents are understandably proud
of their daughter's achievements. On campus, the Fulbrighter has
made a lasting impression as well. Her adviser, Steven Dunn, associate
professor of geology, notes Vigour's ability to "take responsibility
for her education," adding, "She has a keen intellect,
a lively imagination, and a big heart." Emphasizing the scope
of Vigour's accomplishment, Katya King, assistant director of
fellowships and scholarships, points out that while getting a
Fulbright is always a coup, some Fulbright countries offer more
competition than others. Germany is one of the toughest because
of its popularity among applicants.
Despite the tough
competition, Vigour knew where she wanted to go. "I already
have really close friends in Potsdam. That was a big push for
choosing that location instead of another. I feel very at home
in that area. Having one year there wasn't enough for me."
The United States Congress created the Fulbright Program in 1946
to promote mutual understanding among nations through educational
and cultural exchanges. Each year the program allows Americans
to study or conduct research in more than 120 nations. Between
1991 (the first year for which the commission has records) and
2001, eighteen MHC seniors (and a number of alumnae) have been
awarded grants for research in a variety of subject areas and
countries. MHC Fulbrighters have studied soccer clubs as a tool
for overcoming poverty in Bolivia, women's economic roles in Malawi,
anti-HIV medication programs in Senegal, interethnic relations
in Estonia, cancer prevention in Japan, dispute resolution patterns
in Ghana, literature in Pakistan, and minority rights and integration
in Estonia—among many other projects and places.
This is the first
of two articles on Mount Holyoke's 2002 Fulbright Fellowship winners.
Look for a profile of Jennifer Kyker '02 in the May 24 issue of
CSJ.
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