Daniel Gessner '08 Awarded Watson Fellowship

OBERLIN, OHIO—Oberlin senior Daniel Gessner has earned the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for a year of travel and independent study, an honor that continues Oberlin's legacy of winning at least one Watson grant each year since the program was originated in 1968.

Gessner, from University Heights, Ohio, is among 50 fellows picked from the U.S. and internationally to receive a $25,000 grant for a full year of exploration and international travel. Watson fellowships are awarded to college seniors from private liberal arts colleges who show extraordinary promise and academic achievement. Nearly 1,000 students apply for the award each year.

Gessner, who is pursuing a double major in biology and politics, intends use the grant to study and compare universal health care systems in the United Kingdom, Sweden, South Africa, and India.

"I want to investigate the health care industries in those countries because they each have something resembling universal health care," Gessner says. "There's also an interesting comparison, because Sweden has a fairly successful system while South Africa still has some socio-economic roadblocks. I'll also be looking at the push toward privatization of health care in those countries."

Gessner says he wants to get a personal and qualitative perspective by spending time in hospitals and interviewing doctors and patients. "There are a lot of statistical studies (of universal health care). I want to collect the personal experiences and distill the idea of how well these things work," he says.

The Watson Foundation and fellowship program was created in 1968 by the children of Thomas J. Watson Sr., the founder of International Business Machines Corporation.

"The awards are long-term investments in people, not research," says Rosemary Macedo, executive director of the fellowship program and a former Watson Fellow. "We look for people likely to lead or innovate in the future and give them extraordinary independence in pursuing their interests. They must have passion, creativity, and a feasible plan. The Watson Fellowship affords an unequalled opportunity for global experiential learning."

Gessner says the fellowship's focus on personal development is important to him.

"I never had a chance to go abroad during my four years at Oberlin, and this fellowship provides an opportunity that otherwise wouldn't be attainable," he says. "It should be an amazing experience."

Oberlin Professor of English David Walker, a past Watson fellow, says the opportunity to travel abroad and the freedom to pursue a personally significant project comes with challenges and rewards.

"Unlike other fellowships for study abroad, the Watson supports a year of independent study, and not at a university or in support of someone else's research agenda. The Watson is not supposed to be specifically pre-professional; it's a chance for talented individuals to take a step out of a career track to explore an issue or a subject in which they have a passionate interest."

Other Oberlin faculty members who are past Watson Fellowship recipients are David Kamitsuka, associate professor of religion, and Laurie McMillin, associate professor of rhetoric and composition.

McMillin says her year studying abroad in India gave her insights she never could have imagined. "Getting the Watson was a great gift," she says. "It allowed me to explore Buddhist communities in India that were little known in the West in 1984. The Watson was a real test. It brought me out of my narrow concentration on myself and into a wide and complex world. In some ways, I feel like I am still traveling on my Watson. The things I study, write, and teach about — travel, Buddhism, India, the difficulties of understanding other cultures — all of these interests have grown in large part out of my Watson year."