Note: Spring is the time of year when national foundations, organizations and agencies announce the recipients of fellowships, scholarships and awards. The Communications Office will continue to update this story as more announcements are made.
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Barbara Ofosu-Somuah, a senior from the Bronx, N.Y., is the recipient of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship— a year of fully-paid, independent, purposeful exploration and travel outside of the United States to enhance her capacity for resourcefulness, imagination, openness and leadership, and to foster her humane and effective participation in the world community.
Ofosu-Somuah is a joint psychology and sociology major who immigrated to the United States from Ghana at the age of nine. During her “Watson year” she plans to explore the role of hair in Black, Latina and multiracial cultures in Brazil, Dominican Republic, South Africa, Suriname and Jamaica.
“I will focus on engaging in conversations with women of African and African-influenced cultures to understand how hair is not simply a physical feature, but can hold strong cultural connections tied to traditions and beliefs,” Ofosu-Somuah wrote in her proposal. “I recognize that hair, just as race and gender, is a point of cultural inquiry.”
A total of 40 Thomas J. Watson fellows were selected this year from a field of over 700 candidates.
Daniel Loehr, a junior from Andover, N.H., is the recipient of a 2013 Truman Scholarship. Established by Congress in 1975 to honor the 33rd president, the Harry S. Truman Foundation selected Loehr on the basis of his academic record, his leadership skills and his “likelihood of becoming a public service leader.” Truman Scholars receive up to $30,000 for graduate study in addition to leadership training, specialized counseling and internship opportunities within the federal government.
In his application to the Truman Foundation, Loehr said he plans to attend an American law school “so I can legally advise and represent low-income immigrants. A law degree will also help me draft legislation. While I firmly believe in service work that alleviates the negative affects of the current immigration system on people, I am primarily committed to addressing the root of the problem with better policy.”
Although he will not be applying to law school for at least another year, Loehr listed New York University, Berkeley, Columbia and Northeastern as his top choices for earning his degree in law.
The Truman Foundation selected 62 new Truman Scholars in 2013 from among 629 candidates nationwide.
Three Middlebury students — seniors Daniel Egol and Emma Loizeaux, and sophomore Phillip Chang– have been awarded 2013 U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarships.
Established as part of the “U.S. government effort to expand dramatically the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages,” the State Department-sponsored program provides fully-funded, seven-to-10-week intensive language and cultural enrichment experiences to participants who plan to apply their critical language skills in their future professional careers. In 2013 a total of 610 undergraduate and graduate students received the scholarships to study at prescribed language institutes.
Daniel Egol, from Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., will study Chinese this summer in China; Emma Loizeaux, from Hyattsville, Md., will study Hindi in India; and Phillip Chang, from Orinda, Calif., will study Korean in South Korea.
In addition to Chinese, Hindi and Korean, the State Department considers Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Indonesian, Japanese, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish and Urdu on its list of 13 "critical languages."
With reporting by Robert Keren