The primary purpose of the Fellowship is the development of an individual's understanding of himself and his world through involvement with people of a culture not his own. It is intended that the holder of the Fellowship will use it to heighten his awareness of and sensitivity to the people of such a culture and will thereby broaden and deepen the reach of his mind and further discover and clarify the purpose for his life. His involvement with the people in the culture of his choice should be through travel, study, field work, and adventure.
The main portion of the individual's time should be spent in more intensive and more personal involvement with the people of the culture in which he is traveling or residing than normal tourist travel would entail. Also, as a general rule, the year's experience should not be primarily one of academic study in an academic environment. Scholarly study should not be pursued at or in a university or college unless it is clearly preparatory or supplementary to a major activity.
The year provided by the Fellowship should not be spent in the practice or furtherance of a professional career or deliberately used to begin work that the individual intends to make a lifetime work. The year should be planned with the idea of exploration, challenge, and new discovery.
In the course of his travel and work, each individual should engage in serious reflection upon his experiences, and it is hoped that he will become involved in a critical study of some aspect of the culture in which he is living. In this regard, working at some contribution to the arts and sciences may prove a very effective way for him to become involved in the lives of another people and in constructive thought.
The Fellowship is established to assist responsible, sensitive, and thoughtful young men and women of good intelligence who show promise of making an important contribution to the community, nation, or world in which they live. It is important that they demonstrate seriousness of purpose, a creative independence of mind and heart, a warm interest in people, and a sincere concern for the struggles and problems of their fellow man in the modern world. A good academic record is also important, but the primary emphasis is not to be placed on grades but rather on the personal character and promise of the individual.
It is also intended that the young men and women to whom the Fellowship is awarded should be at a formative stage in the development of their aspirations, ideals, loyalties, and powers of understanding. More specifically, they should be individuals who have just completed their B.A. degree and are undecided about their life's work, are not married, and who are searching for new understanding and insight into themselves and their interests before committing themselves to some specific program of work or commencing a professional career. Finally, they should be persons who are seeking, as an important part of this process of self-development, the opportunity for deepening and broadening their experiences with other peoples and cultures.
The stipend is set annually by the Michael C. Rockefeller Administrative Board, which currently offers five individual awards of $18,000 each year. The fellowship may also include funding for an intensive language course if the selection committee stipulates language training to prepare for the year abroad. Fellows who marry before or during the term abroad will forfeit the fellowship.
Application is open to all eligible Harvard seniors—House nomination is no longer required. Applications are available at the beginning of the fall semester from the Fellowships Office at the Office of Career Services (54 Dunster Street, 3rd floor) and are due in late October. A selection committee, which includes Harvard faculty members and members of Michael Rockefeller's family, reviews applications and calls a slate of finalists for interviews, usually in early December. Decisions are announced following interviews. For advice on drawing up specific plans, students should consult their House Fellowships Advisor. Reports from past fellows are also available in Section B of the OCS Reading Room.
A complete application includes:
• an application form;
• a list of activities (not to exceed two pages);
• a current official transcript;
• an essay of no more than 1,000 words that outlines the candidate's plans for spending a year in a foreign culture, reasons for applying for the fellowship, and expectations of how the year will help develop future plans—the essay should not merely deal with proposed travel plans but focus more directly on personal needs and the potential for growth seen in this fellowship;
• two letters of recommendation; and,
• an evaluation form, to be completed by the applicant's House Fellowships Advisor or Resident Dean.
The next deadline for complete applications in the OCS Fellowships Office is Tuesday, October 23, 2007, by 12:00 noon.
Panel presentations by program administrators, faculty committee members, and former fellows are designed to introduce the Michael C. Rockefeller Fellowship to prospective applicants, and to provide information to help applicants put together competitive dossiers.
These information meetings will be held in House clusters, although meetings are open to all who are interested if one day is more convenient than another.
Fall 2007 meetings are as follows:
Monday, September 24, 2007, 7:30 pm, Winthrop House Library
Tuesday, September 25, 2007 7:30 pm, Pforzheimer House Hastings Room
Wendesday, September 26, 2007 7:30 pm, Dunster House JCR
Individuals who are not able to attend their respective House clusters meeting are invited to the other more-convenient meetings.
2007-2008 Rockefeller Fellow Profiles
Amy Tao (Currier House)Biology, Cambodia
Amy will explore issues of faith and spirituality in Cambodia's Theravada Bhuddist culture, where she plans to join a sbek thom/touch or shadow puppetry troupe. She wants to become involved in Cambodian spiritual art and discover how religion and spirituality fit with modernity. She also would like to compare the effect of communism on the religious environment in Cambodia and China.
Matthew Busch (Leverett House)
Economics, Indonesia
Matthew will travel to Indonesia to learn about the fishing industry. He will live in a fishing village to facilitate familiarizing himself with both large industrialized commercial operations and small traditional fishing villages.
Olivia Gage (Adams House)
Anthropology & Public Health, Tanzania
Olivia plans to travel to the Iringa region of Tanzania to engage in grassroots AIDS education. She will collect stories and images of those she meets to write a book to chronicle the personal histories of those impacted by the AIDS pandemic.
Emily Hogeland (Currier House)
Neurobiology, Peru
Emily will travel to Cuzco, Peru and explore the different impediments to family health care in the urban center and nearby highland communities. She will visit health care clinics and interview doctors, families, and administrative officials to see how to improve access to health care using community-based measures. She also plans to mentor children in an orphanage.
Ann Riley (Quincy House)
Social Studies, The Republic of Seychelles
Ann will work with an NGO that specializes in environmental social action and education about biodiversity. She will also work with disabled children to engage them in civic participation.
Kelly Lee (Currier House)
African American Studies, Mexico
Kelly will spend a year in Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico, learning about grassroots political community organizations organized to empower the indigenous people of those regions.
Oludamini Ogunnaike (Lowell House)
Psychology/Mind, Brain and Behavior & African Studies, Mali
Oludamini will live near Bumako, Mali, where he will pursue intensive drum study with master drummers from that region. He also hopes to tour the country with his teachers while he is there.
The Story of Michael C. Rockefeller
Michael had graduated from Harvard and had just finished six months in the National Guard when he went to West Irian (formerly known as Dutch New Guinea) on a Harvard Peabody Museum Expedition. The expedition, which he had helped sponsor, went in early 1961 to study an isolated agricultural society in the New Guinea highlands. At the end of the expedition, he set out on his own to study and collect art on the southern coast.
After making several preliminary journeys trhoughout the Asmat region, Michael set off on a major collecting trip on the evening of November 18th with a crew of native Papuans and a Dutch anthropologist, Rene Wassing. His boat was a large raft he had constructed by building a platform over two dug-out canoes, with an outboard motor for power. Michael hoped this raft would give him more independence in collecting art. Though he had used it only on the river, Michael believed the vessel was seaworthy. But when they reached the wide mouth of the Asewets River at dusk, the ocean waves capsized the raft.
Michael and Rene salvaged some of their belongings and spent the night safely on the inverted platform. The Papuans abandoned ship and swam for shor, reaching Agats, where the Dutch government station was located, later that night. Unknown to Michael and Rene, the government sent out a search boat immediately, but it probably did not go far enough before turning back. By morning, when it was light enough to see, Michael and Rene found themselves drifting far away from the coast on the strong river current. They knew there was very little chance of being picked up, since a packet boat only came along the coast once a week and planes rarely flew over the area. Not being one to wait for events to direct his actions, Michael decided to swim ashore, lashing empty fuel tanks to his back to keep him afloat.
I can imagine Michael cheerily saying good-bye to Rene, and reassuring him he would be back with a rescue crew by the next morning, at the latest. It has been estimated that the raft was twelve miles from the shore when he started to swim. A government search party found the raft and Rene that same day but they never found Michael. He disappeared, probably succumbing to dehydration and sun exposure before he ever reached the edge of the mangrove swamp. A gas tank, found by rescue workers several days later, was the only clue ever found. Despite the stories of sensationalists, I am sure Michael never reached dry land.
Michael's life was brief but intense. In spite of the tragedy, however, there is much to celebrate. Michael's cherished art collection now has a permanent home at the Metropolitan Museum. And the Fellowship has proved to be a wonderful legacy, of which Michael would have been most proud.
--Sam Putnam, Journeys and Reflections: 25 Years of the Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Fellowship