Student Work at College of the Atlantic

Brett Ciccotelli, Nick Jenei, and Michael Keller receive Watson Fellowships

Brett Ciccotelli

All three of College of the Atlantic’s Watson nominees have been awarded Watson Fellowships this year – despite the Watson Foundation’s reduction of the awards by 20 percent due to the economy. This prestigious fellowship funds a year of international travel to graduating seniors. In past years, fifty fellowships were awarded; this year, there were only forty, chosen from 177nominees from forty-seven of some of the best colleges in the United States.

In his letter congratulating COA and the recipients, Watson Foundation Director Cleveland Johnson noted that, “the elimination of ten fellowship slots has made this year’s competition especially fierce.” The awards to all three COA nominees, he added, “is a high honor given the extraordinary strength of the national pool of nominees this year and the reduced number of available fellowships.”

The students are Brett Ciccotelli, Nick Jenei, and Michael Keller.

Nick Jenei

“The approach of the Watson Foundation matches perfectly with the educational philosophy of COA.” said COA President David Hales upon hearing the news. “Both invest in passionate learners, creative thinkers and motivated self-starters who are encouraged to dream big but apply their ideas in practical ways. It is also a testament to COA’s academic excellence and effective and dynamic faculty-student relationships, which leads to a singular educational experience attracting some of the most wonderful students in the world.”

Ciccotelli, a native of Blackwood, NJ, has had a love of rivers since childhood. He will be exploring river deltas and coastal wetlands in Canada, Mexico, Italy, Bangladesh and Egypt to learn from those whose, “prosperity, security, and identity are inseparable from their wetland or river.” He also received an honorable mention from the Udall Foundation and a Craig Greene Memorial Scholarship, given by COA.

Jenei of Westlake Village, CA, has been focused on sustainable business while at COA. He will be looking into sustainable entrepreneurship and the future of business in India and China, seeking to “explore innovative business models that value people and the environment as much as they do profits.”

Michael Keller

Keller, who began in high school to befriend and then work with members of the immigrant population of his native Charlottesville, VA, will be looking at the experience of immigrants in Denmark, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, “to understand how refugees interact with environments to develop a new sense of place.” Earlier, Keller received a “Projects for Peace” award from Kathryn W. Davis, for his outreach and photo essay project, “Asylum and Acceptance: Seeking Peace in Charlottesville, Virginia.” Keller spent the fall in Berlin as a recipient of the highly competitive Humanity in Action Fellowship. Like Ciccotelli, he also received an honorable mention from the Udall Foundation.

The three projects are as follows:

Brett Ciccotelli: Change Along the Banks: Explorations in River Deltas and Coastal Wetlands

Wherever I have gone in my life, waterways have acted as portals to the places beyond the streets, places where nature and culture are hidden. As a Watson fellow, I will live in and explore five of world’s great river deltas and coastal wetlands. Traveling through-the Mackenzie, Colorado, Nile, and Ganges-Brahmaputra River Deltas, and the Venetian Lagoon-I hope to learn from those whose lives are linked to the ebb and flood of the water, whose prosperity, security, and identity are inseparable from their wetland or river.

Nick Jenei: Sustainable Entrepreneurship: The Future of Business in India and China

India and China face strong social and environmental pressures to transition to sustainable economies, yet their entrepreneurs are posed to adopt sustainable business practices due to the presence of innovative thinkers, growing economies, and pro-business governments. I want to learn from and collaborate with Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs who live in a very different cultural, historical, and political context than I do, and explore innovative business models that value people and the environment as much as they do profits.

Michael Keller: Mapping Asylum in Fortress Europe

I will engage refugees in mapping and interpreting their unique landscapes of migration as they start new lives amidst intolerance and strict asylum policies. Persecuted or forced to leave their homes because of race, religion, nationality, social group, or political opinion, refugees from diverse backgrounds are forming new worlds of innovation, entrepreneurship, and political action in European cities. I will explore places of sanctuary and resettlement in five EU nations to understand how refugees interact with environments to develop a new sense of place.

Each fellow receives $28,000 for the year of travel and exploration. COA has been invited to nominate students for this prestigious fellowship since 1982; twenty-eight COA seniors have now received this fellowship.

As interesting as the projects are says Johnson, “The awards are long-term investments in people, not research. We look for persons likely to lead or innovate in the future and give them extraordinary independence to pursue their interests outside of traditional academic structures.” Fellows have gone on to become college presidents and professors, CEOs of major corporations, MacArthur “genius” grant recipients, politicians, artists, lawyers, diplomats, doctors, journalists, innovators and researchers across a wide range of sciences and engineering disciplines.

The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program was established in 1968 by the children of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., the founder of International Business Machines Corp., and his wife, Jeannette K. Watson, to honor their parents’ long-standing interest in education and world affairs.

College of the Atlantic was founded in 1969 on the premise that education should go beyond understanding the world as it is, to enabling students to actively shape its future. A leader in environmental stewardship and experiential education, COA has pioneered a distinctive interdisciplinary approach to learning-human ecology-that develops the kinds of creative thinkers and doers who can lead all sectors of society to promote sustainable ecosystems while meeting compelling and growing human

-Donna Gold