Three Whitman Seniors Named 2026 Watson Fellows

Whitman College seniors Riley Cooper, Maryanne Ndung’u and Darta Sipola have been awarded the prestigious Watson Fellowship, which offers a unique opportunity to pursue a fully self-designed project abroad during the year after graduation. Whitman had the most Watson Fellows selected from any institution this year.

With a $40,000 grant, the fellowship supports graduates in exploring a topic they are deeply passionate about on a global scale. Fellows also receive health insurance and support for student loan payments, making it possible to focus entirely on personal and intellectual growth during the year.   

Exploring Human-Animal Relationships Through A Global Lens

Riley Cooper ’26, an English and Film and Media Studies double major from Broomfield, Colorado, will combine her passion for animals and documentary filmmaking in a global project featuring human-animal relationships. 

After months of waiting between her November interview and the March decision, she felt both relief and excitement when she was selected. 

“Animals have been a huge part of my life in my last four years at Whitman,” she says. “So to be able to go explore that more for a year and see it in different countries and different contexts is really exciting for me personally.”

During her time at Whitman, Cooper secured a Whitman-funded internship giving adaptive horseback riding lessons to people with disabilities, worked for a local veterinarian and volunteered at the Blue Mountain Humane Society. She hopes to apply to veterinary school after her Watson year.

Her project will take her to six countries—Iceland, Kyrgyzstan, Peru, Japan, Australia and England—where she will explore how different cultures understand and interact with animals. Cooper is especially interested in the balance between human needs and animal welfare, particularly when animals take on roles as laborers and companions. This includes examining how animals are used for both physical and emotional labor and the ethical tension that can arise when human benefit and animal well-being do not fully align.

Alongside her research, Cooper will create a documentary series capturing these relationships using skills she developed through her filmmaking coursework. She plans to immerse herself fully in each environment before filming, prioritizing lived experience over observation. 

Reflecting on the application process, Cooper emphasizes the importance of following genuine interests, noting that the interview itself was surprisingly personal and focused on who she is, not just her academic achievements. 

Bridging Community & Business Across Africa 

Maryanne Ndung’u ’26, an Economics-Mathematics major from Nairobi, Kenya, is turning her passion for business into a global learning experience. As a Watson Fellow, she will travel across South Africa, Ghana, Morocco, The Gambia and Tanzania. 

Ndung’u’s project focuses on “necessity-driven businesses,” small enterprises created out of need, often without outside funding or support. Ndung’u aims to understand how these businesses survive, grow and balance profit with community impact.

Growing up surrounded by entrepreneurs, particularly women, shaped her perspective on business as a tool for problem-solving and community support. And at Whitman, she explored that interest more deeply—through a Whitman-funded internship in microfinance, a Projects for Peace grant to design and deliver financial literacy workshops to women traders in a Kenya market, student-faculty research on gender and microfinance, and Whitman's Finance Accelerator program.

Focusing her travels on the African continent feels very personal to Ndung’u, she says, and will allow her to learn how small businesses function in very different economies—from one of the largest (South Africa) to one of the smallest (The Gambia).

Ndung’u’s experience adapting to life at Whitman as an international student has also prepared her for the independence the fellowship requires. 

“All the skills that I learned to survive in this foreign land, like advocating for myself and asking for help, are going to be really relevant,” she says.

She hopes that her Watson project will be the first step toward creating an accelerator program that funds business ventures within the African continent.

Investigating Access to Rural Health Care Around the World 

Darta Sipola ’26, a Brain, Behavior and Cognition major from Seattle, will use her Watson year to examine how different countries address challenges in rural health care access, looking at approaches shaped by geography, funding and cultural priorities. She plans to travel to Fiji, New Zealand, Nepal, Greece, Peru, Bolivia, Sweden and Senegal, each chosen for a specific aspect of their health care systems. 

In Nepal, for instance, there are frequent landslides, so she hopes to have an opportunity to study disaster management in rural areas. While most research studies focus on urban populations, in Sweden, she’ll connect with researchers conducting studies in rural populations. And in Greece, she’ll look at the availability of mental health care in rural areas.

Sipola’s interest is both academic and personal. Having worked in pharmacies in Seattle and Walla Walla, she saw clear differences in access to care, from affordability to the availability of specialists. Living in a more rural setting at Whitman and studying abroad in Kenya, where she spent a lot of time in rural areas, deepened this awareness. 

Courses like Infectious Disease (BBMB-430) with Associate Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology (BBMB) Jim Russo were formative. “I got to learn about what diseases are prevalent in certain areas and how that shapes the disease trajectory,” she says. “I feel like that was very important to me, and also it made me really think about funding issues, because obviously it’s very relevant to the quality of health care.”

Sipola initially doubted she was qualified for the Watson, but encouragement from professors and mentors changed her perspective. “It was a lot of people just believing in me and saying, ‘You can do it. You should go for it.’ I feel like that has been the most formative thing.”

She says applying for a Whitman Internship Grant also helped her understand how to craft a proposal and defend it. 

Receiving the fellowship on her birthday made the moment especially meaningful, marking both an achievement and a shift in how she saw herself. “I learned a lot about myself just in the application process,” she says. “I think that was very valuable.”

The Road to the Watson 

Unlike more structured postgraduate programs, the Watson Fellowship emphasizes independence and creativity. Applicants are responsible for designing every aspect of their project, including their research focus, travel plans and timeline. This high level of flexibility requires leadership, initiative and a sustained commitment to a particular interest. 

“What I love the most about this fellowship is that it’s built on the premise of growth,” says Director for Fellowships and Grants Jessica Hernandez. “Through the Watson year, fellows leave behind everything they are comfortable with and go out into the world, where they push the edges of their comfort zone. They expand their capacity for empathy, connection and courage.”

According to Hernandez, the application process is both rigorous and selective. “The sooner you meet with us, the better,” she says. Students must submit a personal statement and a detailed project proposal explaining their goals and plans for the year. 

At Whitman, applicants first go through a campus interview process before up to four students are nominated for the national competition. From there, only 40 fellows are selected nationwide each year, making it one of the most selective and distinctive postgraduate opportunities available.

Interested students are encouraged to begin exploring the Watson Fellowship early in their college careers, as the process of developing a meaningful project often takes time. Even for those who ultimately pursue other opportunities, the application process itself can serve as a gateway to other global ventures. Ultimately, the Watson Fellowship stands out not only for what it offers, but for the kind of curiosity, initiative and growth it inspires in those who pursue it. 

“You get the full support of a team at the Watson Foundation that wants to help you explore your interests on a global scale,” Hernandez says. “It’s the chance of a lifetime.”