For Afshin Khan PO ’11, receiving an education as a child was a constant struggle.
_x000D_
_x000D_
As an international student from Pakistan, she comes from a village where education was difficult to obtain, especially for girls. Khan said her mother, who refused to accept this fate for her children, was devoted to providing an education for Khan and her siblings.
_x000D_
_x000D_
“I come from a very remote part of the country; people from my area do not go to school at all,” she said. “It had been a solitary struggle for my mother.”
_x000D_
_x000D_
Now, after she graduates from Pomona this spring, Khan plans to create a documentary with a Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellowship, finding heroes in female education in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Syria, Morocco, and South Africa. Inspired by her mother’s dedication to her education, she plans to investigate individuals, communities, and organizations that are leaders in the field of education.
_x000D_
_x000D_
Khan is one of only two Pomona seniors and 50 students nationwide to receive the $25,000 Watson fellowship, a grant that provides graduating seniors funding for one year of independent travel and research on their chosen topic outside the United States. The fellowship accepts nominations from forty colleges each year, including Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, and Scripps, and each school nominates a number of students based on its size. Students first compete within their colleges to be nominated and then nationally to receive the fellowship. Individual colleges are therefore not guaranteed Watson winners from year to year, and this year no students from Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, or Scripps were awarded fellowships. Last year, Pomona did not have any awardees.
_x000D_
_x000D_
The other 2011-2012 Watson fellowship winner, theater major Sam Gold PO ’11, plans to travel to the Czech Republic, Poland, Japan and Singapore to investigate the role of puppets in modern performance.
_x000D_
_x000D_
“People who watch puppets oftentimes think they’re experiencing something different then watching humans,” he said. “Why is that true?”
_x000D_
_x000D_
Paula Goldsmid, director of the Graduate Fellowships Office at Pomona, explained in an e-mail that the fellowship is designed to allow students to investigate a project of their own design.
_x000D_
_x000D_
“It’s a full year of independent travel and a very special kind of independent ‘study.’ Fellows create their own projects, which usually come from long-standing interests,” she said. “It’s a good match for people who are creative, resilient, adventurous.”
_x000D_
_x000D_
The fellowship requires that some creative aspect be incorporated into the project. To fulfill this, Khan plans to create an inspirational and informative documentary from the stories she hears.
_x000D_
_x000D_
“I want to find people who aren’t in the news,” she said.
_x000D_
_x000D_
The project also, ideally, “can’t be something you’ve already done,” Gold said. Although he has participated in theater throughout his college career, he chose puppets because they were a departure from what he’s done before.
_x000D_
_x000D_
“The human body in performance has sort of become my interest at Pomona,” he said. As a novel exploration, “[puppetry] seemed like a good place to start.”
_x000D_
_x000D_
The fellowship is meant as a year of enriching exploration, whether tied to a student’s future career or not. Gold said he wants to continue in some type of performance career after his year of travel and research. Khan said she plans to attend medical school.