NORTON, Mass. — Seven Wheaton students have won competitive national scholarships so far this semester. The college’s two Watson Fellows, two Truman Scholars and one Fulbright Scholar will travel and study at home and around the world as they pursue unique learning experiences before heading to graduate school and careers.

March 31, 2005

NORTON, Mass.--One student will study music in Morocco; two others will teach English. And while one senior documents the dying days of rural farming in Switzerland, two juniors hope to develop solutions to save rural agriculture and open space at home.

These students--two of them home-schooled brothers--are some of the major competitive scholarship winners at Wheaton so far this semester. For the year, the college boasts more than a dozen scholarship winners who will travel and study at home and around the world as they pursue unique learning experiences before heading to graduate school and careers.

Wheaton seniors Liza Semler of Middlesex, Vt., and Tyler Matteson Epsom, N.H., are two of 50 college students nationwide selected to receive a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. The $22,000 award will support a year of travel and research for each student; Matteson plans to study the role of the electronic drum in traditional world music, and Semler will document the struggles of dairy farmers on dying farms.

No stranger to traditional music, Matteson formed his own Celtic-based band as a teenager and has since recorded three CDs and has performed widely throughout the Northeast. His performances, coupled with his music studies at Wheaton, inspired a growing interest in the impact of technology on traditional music styles and techniques.

Matteson plans to travel in the Dominican Republic, England, Brazil, India, France, Morocco and Sweden to look inside a few traditional music styles that are particularly fertile with change and adaptation to see how musicians are responding to the introduction of the drum machine, and to explore the creative and social tension that exists between the traditionalists and the innovators.

Semler's hometown inspired her interest in the ways communities cope with the loss of rural traditions and values when dairy farms stop operating. An anthropology major with a keen eye for the visual, Semler will study farming in Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden, New Zealand and Canada, using her camera to document hidden stories.

Junior political science majors Alex Dewar of Portland, Ore., and Myles Matteson of Epsom, N.H., won Harry S. Truman Scholarships to pursue graduate degrees. Both plan to pursue law degrees and careers in the development of land use policy.

Dewar, president of the Student Government Association (SGA), has built a long and distinguished record in leadership and public service. A Balfour Scholar, 2004 Udall Scholar, Eunice Caldwell Leadership Award winner and Eagle Scout, Dewar says his work in Oregon politics and land conservation best illustrate his passion for public service. He is interested in developing public policy to combat the social ills--pollution, abuse of natural resources and decline in urban growth--associated with urban sprawl, and hopes to pursue a law degree at New York University while simultaneously earning a master's in public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

A jack-of-all-trades--home-schooled student, professional bagpiper, Junior Olympic fencer, sailor, debater and Wheaton Presidential and Balfour Scholar--Myles Matteson discovered an interest in rural and agricultural development literally in his own backyard: his parents' flower farming business in New Hampshire. It's there, Matteson explained, that he learned how imbalances in farm subsidy distribution affect small farmers.

Matteson also has a strong interest in law. His dream of attending the U.S. Naval Academy and joining the Navy Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps ended when he nearly lost his vision as a teen, so Matteson is concentrating on the civilian courtroom. In 2002 he interned with the United Nations Chief of Prosecutions in The Hague, when he studied the trial of former Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milosevic. He hopes to attend the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Karin Seeber '05 of Groton, Mass., a double major in English and German, will teach English and American studies in Germany next year as the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship. The editor of the Wire--Wheaton's student newspaper--Seeber won one of the Padagogischer Austauschdienst Teaching Assistantships/Fulbright Grants. She hopes to share her interest in contemporary media and culture with German high school students to offer them ''a more personal view of our culture and its values.''

Seeber has distinguished herself at Wheaton in several areas. She is a Dean's List student, a Community Scholar, a preceptor in the German Department and a member of the German and film clubs. She has been a writer, editor and photographer for the Wire for all four years and has written for her hometown newspaper and Wheaton's college magazine and Web site. She plans to pursue a graduate degree in journalism.

Henry Gerlits '05 of Franklin, Mass., a double major in philosophy and religion, will teach English South Korea as the winner of a Fulbright Scholarship. A recipient of the J. Arthur Prize in Religion and a Balfour and Presidential Scholar, Gerlits plans to use his Fulbright experience to gain first-hand experience in Asian culture in preparation for a career as a professor of Asian religions. To that end, he will study Buddhism in addition to teaching English in South Korea.

"I would like to seek out practitioners of Buddhism to discuss their relationship with their environment," Gerlits said. "I am interested in examining the link between religious worldviews and attitudes and environmental policies; I am fascinated with how religion shapes the world we see and thus our attitudes toward the earth."

John Heywood '05 of Oakland, Calif., an independent major in science, technology and society, will conduct research in Estonia next year as the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship. The Wheaton Community Scholar and saxophonist looks to Estonia as a potential model for other countries considering the adoption of wireless Internet, particularly in terms of the way wireless communications can transcend traditional obstacles to building community.

"Clearly, embracing wireless Internet has done wonders for Estonia's economy, but there is also a fascinating dynamic between new technology and countries with more traditional lifestyles," Heywood said. "I believe that Estonia can serve as a model for the rest of the world, not only in illustrating the economic successes that they have had with wireless technology, but in showing the effects that this technology can have on a nation."

Caitlin Deighan, a senior French Studies major, has been awarded a French Government Teaching Assistantship by the French Ministry of Education. She will be teaching at a high school in the Orleans-Tours region.

In the fall semester, Wheaton senior Carolyn Wills of Salt Lake City won a Rhodes Scholarship. In addition, four alumnae/i were honored with awards: Fred Marcks '02 won a Rotary Ambassador Scholarship; Cathy Brown '97 won a Rotary World Peace Scholarship; Joy Williams '03 won a Fulbright to study dance in Colombia; and Megan Shea '04 won a Fulbright to teach English in the Czech Republic.