Two Whitman Grads Will Have Global Experiences as 2026 Bassett Fellows

Two recent Whitman College graduates, Ruth Iiyambo and Ishaan Swami, have been awarded the Bassett Traveling Fellowship, which gives academically talented students the opportunity to travel abroad after graduation. With a grant of $12,000, the fellowship will support IIyambo and Swami in exploring their passions on a global scale and taking their learning out into the world. 

Sustainable Solutions to Human-Wildlife Conflict

Ruth Iiyambo ’26, a Davis United World College Scholar from Namibia, will travel to Ghana, Namibia and Kenya to study sustainable solutions to human-wildlife conflict. Her double major in Computer Science and Economics has helped inform her knowledge about creative and cost-effective solutions. Her project, spanning three countries, will investigate the growing tensions between agricultural land and wild elephants.

“Where I come from, a lot of farmers have issues with elephants destroying the crops,” Iiyambo says. “People come up with different solutions, like herbs that keep away the elephants or this idea of beehive fencing. Elephants are very scared of bees, so if there are beehives around the field, they stay away from the field. It’s a really good solution, because it’s not trapping or harming the elephants.” 

Iiyambo is interested in how sustainable solutions like these can be adapted and shared across countries. Something that works for Namibian farmers might also be effective in Ghana.

“If we look at similar environments and try to learn from them, we come up with better sustainable solutions.”

With the help of the Fellowship and Grants team at the Career and Community Engagement Center (CCEC), Iiyambo adapted her Watson Fellowship proposal for the Bassett Fellowship. She is now working out the best timing for her project as she prepares to start graduate school. 

“I’m excited to narrow it down into a more focused pilot project, and I know it’s something that I will build more off of,” she says. “I think it’s exciting because it’s so close to me, it’s no longer an abstract thing. It’s something that I’ve been working toward since high school, when I first wrote about beehive fencing. I’m stepping into not just writing about it, not just abstract ideas, but going on the ground and seeing how people are doing it, studying it and talking to people.”

Mapping the Intersection of Culture & Land

Ishaan Swami ’26, a Geology+French major with a concentration in Global Studies from Tustin, California, is headed to Mongolia to carry out his project “Ethnogeology: Myth and Landscape.” Swami will be working closely with Erjen Khamaganova at the World Union of Indigenous Spiritual Practitioners to study the way that stories are connected to the land and to help create a digital atlas of sacred places. 

“One thing that was really important to me was a service learning model, which is the idea that I will be learning a lot from them, and in exchange, I want to do something to help them,” Swami says. “The digital atlas is something that I could really help with, because in my Geology classes, I’ve worked a lot with maps and mapmaking tools.”

In Swami’s Land, Water, Justice class, they made a Story Map, a digital multimedia map that can include text, images and video. So when Khamaganova mentioned that her program has the stories and the knowledge but isn’t as good with the digital side of mapmaking, Swami knew it was a perfect use of their skills and one of the places they could help the most.

The part of the project Swami is the most excited about are petroglyphs, ancient rock art. They are grateful to have had the opportunity to see Pacific Northwest petroglyphs in their Geology classes at Whitman and to see petroglyphs while studying abroad in Chile. Swami is looking forward to adding the petroglyphs of Mongolia to their list. Their project will also prove invaluable to their career goals, as they get to learn from one of the world leaders in conservation. 

“In my career, I’m interested in working with land management and environmental stewardship, in that region of environmental studies,” Swami says. “One of the things that is often really missing is the cultural connection to the land. I think this project will give me a really powerful foundation for ethnogeology, the way that culture is tied to the land.” 

For more information about how the CCEC can connect you with amazing opportunities, connect with Whitman’s Fellowships and Grants team.