The Committee on Graduate Fellowships announced yesterday it chose Daniel Dalseth '97, Abigail Gordon '98, Emily Hodgson '98, Sara Pankenier '98 and Justin Stearns '98 as this year's recipients of the James B. Reynolds Scholarship.
The Reynolds Scholarship awards $12,000 to each recipient to pursue their study of interest in a foreign country. Current seniors and alumni who are no more than five years out of Dartmouth and are U.S. citizens may apply for the grant.
The Reynolds Scholarship is the largest scholarship the College gives out to graduating students and is considered one of the most prestigious.
"Most of the others don't allow you to design an independent project" like the Reynolds Scholarship, Committee Chair Ellis Shookman said.
"This scholarship tends to attract the very best projects. It is very competitive," said Susan Wright, executive secretary for the Committee on Graduate Fellowships.
Dalseth, who graduated last year, has been studying art since his years at Dartmouth. As a painter and a sculptor, he will carry his interests in art to Russia where he will study ancient and modern Russian art and their influence of contemporary art.
Dalseth will paint and sculpt using the experiences that he gains from his travels throughout Russia.
Gordon plans to travel to Madrid, Spain, to research the rights of immigrants and asylum-seekers. She will take courses in Arabic while working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee where she will examine the issue of mass-migration from Morocco to Spain.
Gordon, a government and romance languages major, is actively involved with the Rockefeller Center for Public Affairs where she has participated in the Women in Politics organization and the Rockefeller Public Issues Forum.
"I knew all along I wanted to study in Spain," Gordon said.
Working in Spain will provide her a chance to combine her interests in government and languages, which she was not able to do at Dartmouth, she said.
Hodgson said she will use her scholarship to study English Romantic studies at Sumerville College, a part of Oxford University in England. Hodgson said her interest in English Romantic studies goes back to her father, who is a professor of English Romanticism.
"The authors [of English Romanticism] speak to me more," Hodgson said. Studying at Oxford in comparison to a U.S. institution will give her more freedom, Hodgson said.
She will work with Professor Fiona Stafford to earn her M.Phil, the British version of the M.A., over a two year period.
"Ultimately I would like to get my Ph.D. in English and be a professor of English," Hodgson said.
Hodgson, an English major, runs cross country and winter and spring track, and is the head writing assistant for the Composition Center.
Pankenier plans to head to Sweden next year to study the effects and influence of Astrid Lindgren's literature on the Soviet Union.
"[My project] fits perfectly as something to do independently," Pankenier said. "It brings together everything I've been interested in."
Pankenier is a comparative literature major and Russian minor, and said she plans to continue studying both Russian and Swedish, while working on her research project in children's literature.
Her research will be in conjunction with her work as a guest researcher for the Abo Academy's research project "Children's Literature Pure and Applied."
Pankenier is from Bethlehem, Penn., and is half Swedish by birth. As a child she read a lot of Swedish.
After her year abroad, Pankenier said she plans to go to graduate school to pursue further degrees in comparative literature or Russian.
Stearns will travel to Morocco to study the transfer and adoption of culture between Western Europe and the Islamic world in Morocco in the 10th to 13th centuries.
"I am really looking forward to living in an Islamic society," Stearns said. "I heard it is really interesting."
Stearns will study at the Arabic Language Institute in Fez which is renowned for its Islamic language. Stearns said he hopes to look at how the two cultures have exchanged ideas and the how each influenced the other's perception of their surrounding worlds.
This year, there were 18 applicants who submitted their detailed proposals to the committee. Along with their proposals, each student submitted three recommendations showing the "outstanding" qualities the committee looks for, Shookman said.
Overall, the number of applicants is down from two and three years ago when the committee received between 28 and 35 applications each year.
"The committee looks for intellectual ability and at the character of the applicants," Shookman said.
As for the quality and character of the project, "There must be some value beyond purely personal enrichment," Shookman said.