Thomas J. Watson Fellowship
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship is a grant that enables graduating seniors to pursue a year of independent study outside the United States. The Fellowship Program was established by the children of Thomas J. Watson, the founder of IBM.
Only graduates of fifty highly-selective small colleges are eligible. Institutions eligible to nominate Watson Fellows are mostly esteemed liberal arts colleges such as Amherst College, Williams College, and Swarthmore College, but other small and distinguished institutions such as Caltech and the Rhode Island School of Design are also eligible.
Currently the award is $25,000 per fellow or $35,000 for a fellow traveling with a spouse or dependent. Among the 2,300 former Watson Fellows are included numerous diplomats (such as the late Sudanese Vice-President, and Grinnell College graduate, John Garang), scholars, doctors, and artists. The fellowship itself grants recipients money to spend one year traveling (recipients are forbidden from reentering the United States for one year) in pursuit of their projects. Projects are not academically oriented, as the fellowship is intended to encourage exploration and new experiences rather than formal research.
