Lian Caspi, Watson Fellowship (United Kingdom, India, Nepal, South Africa, Colombia)

Sarah Debs, NIH/IRTA Award (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Maryland)

Christopher Fleming, Fulbright U.S. Student Program, India (research)

Tom Friedenbach, Critical Language Scholarship (U.S. Department of State, Chinese); Killam Scholarship

Jeremy Norden, Davis Projects for Peace (Colombia, Japan)

Alegria Olmedo, Princeton in Asia Fellowship (environmental conservation, TRAFFIC, Hanoi)

Brian Raftrey, NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (cell biology, Stanford University)

Oak Rankin, Fulbright U.S. Student Program, Brazil (English Teaching Assistantship)

Hannah Siano, Udall Scholarship (environmental studies)

Alex Waheed, Fulbright U.S. Student Program, Malaysia (English Teaching Assistantship)

The Office of Fellowships and Grants assists Whitman students and alumni in their application and candidacy for national fellowships, scholarships, and grants.

Each year our scholars receive generous awards for graduate study, self-directed research, teaching and public service in the United States and abroad. While these outcomes are gratifying to our students and important in the overarching mission of the college, a more important measure of meaning in our work is the self-examination that each applicant undertakes in the pursuit of opportunities, and the awareness that results from that exploration.

Ultimately, our goal is to help students think deeply and critically about issues, ideas and values; about their lives and the lives of others. Equipped with self-reflection, they will know better who they are and what they might contribute to the community. Having put their critical thinking to the test, they will have a better vantage of the larger world around them and their humble yet essential place in it.

News and Features

  • Watson Fellowship Allows Cameron Conner ’20 to Explore Communities Across Globe

    May 5, 2020 • Cameron Conner ’20 believes strongly in the power of communities. He demonstrates that it in his actions, whether that’s volunteering as a wrestling coach at a Spokane, Washington, high school, becoming certified as an EMT, co-founding a nonprofit or helping the city of Walla Walla create a neighborhood-building program. Moving forward, he’ll dig deeper into what makes communities work as a recipient of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship.

  • Brotherly Love Fuels Watson Fellowship for Evangelos Sarantinos ’20

    May 5, 2020 • This spring, Evangelos Sarantinos ’20 was awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to study rare disease and caregivers around the world.

  • Two Seniors Receive Prestigious Watson Fellowships

    April 22, 2020 • Two Whitman College seniors will have the chance to travel the world and pursue knowledge thanks to awards from the Watson Foundation. Evangelos Sarantinos '20, a biology major from Seattle, Washington, and Cameron Conner '20, a rhetoric and politics double-major from Spokane, Washington, are recipients of the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship.