WATSON FELLOWSHIP FINALIST
Chosen as the first alternate for a highly competitive fellowship only awarded to 40 students across the country each year.
THE WATSON
If you had $30,000 to travel the world for a year to pursue a project you are passionate about, what would you do?
The Watson Fellowship gives 40 graduating seniors the opportunity to answer this question on an independent global expedition in the year following their college graduation, with only one catch: they can't step foot on US soil for 12 months.
In the spring of my junior year, I began to conceptualize a journey that I would work on for the next 9 months. I proposed a project that focused on sex and communication. I wanted to understand how consent is culturally constructed by the ways people learn about sex, relationships, sexuality, and their bodies in different cultures. I’m curious about understanding how people learn about these things (both formally and informally) and was hoping to see what we can learn from the ways other countries are tackling these problems.
Below I talk about my project, including my travel plans and excerpts from both my personal statement and my project proposal. Additionally, I touch on the immense amount I learned from applying for the Watson, despite not being able to actually take this journey.
The Writing Process
I wrote both a personal statement and project proposal.
Preliminary Interview
I had an 8-person panel interview to be chosen as 1 of 4 nominees from my school.
Final Interview
A Watson representative flew out to conduct an hour-long final interview.
First Alternate
I was chosen as the first alternate for this fellowship that is only awarded to 40 individuals nationwide.
THE CHALLENGE
To design a 12-month journey across the world to pursue a project you're passionate about.
THE
PROJECT
My project focused on sex and communication. I wanted to understand how consent is culturally constructed by the ways people learn about sex, relationships, sexuality, and their bodies in different cultures. I’m curious about understanding how people learn about these things and was hoping to see what we can learn from the ways other countries are tackling these problems.
SKILLS DEVELOPED
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Forming connections
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Research
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Extensive planning
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Persuasive writing
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Self-confidence
MY PASSION
"As my passion for understanding the way we talk about sex, communication, and consent has grown, the constraints I feel in the discourses I am a part of have grown too. Sexual assault has made its way into the national conversation, often causing discussions to be framed by legal distinctions and complex investigations...But it is the stories people tell me and lives I see this affect that have led me to believe that sexual assault isn’t about the lawsuits or the policies.
Sexual assault continues to happen, not because of a flaw in our legal system, but because of a flaw in how we learn to think about and talk about sex and relationships. I’ve come to believe that only when we start to have these important conversations and create this shift in our mentality will we make actual change...
I’m applying for the Watson because sexual assault is a cultural problem. We talk about these issues as if other parts of the world aren’t also having sex and experiencing the problems and the pleasures that come with it. If we truly want to change the way our culture operates, I believe we need to explore these topics on a global scale. My semester abroad in the Czech Republic allowed me to start having these conversations. I was struck by the stark differences in how young people conceptualize sex, as well as how these different cultural expectations shaped the pressures they were feeling. For me, this was just the beginning of wondering what we can learn about sex and communication from communities across the world. I want the space to explore these curiosities and to culturally-deconstruct the ways we learn about these topics, in hopes of transforming who I am as a leader, as an advocate, and as a person. These aren’t questions I believe can be authentically answered without first creating personal relationships in those communities – without truly being present. "
"I'M APPLYING FOR THE WATSON BECAUSE SEXUAL ASSAULT IS A CULTURAL PROBLEM."
MY PROJECT
"During my Watson year, by looking cross-culturally, I believe that I can find better ways to shift the conversation that we, as Americans, are having about sex, communication, and in turn, consent.
What does the process of learning about sex look like? How do we learn about our bodies, and alternatively, how do we learn to communicate when using our bodies with someone else? Perhaps more important, how does this affect the quality and safety of these interactions for all people involved? What role do power and privilege play? How do these processes in different cultures influence what “consent” means in that community? Is this term even relevant in cultures that conceptualize individual rights in a fundamentally different way?
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These are the types of questions I will explore as I travel to Indonesia, India, New Zealand, and Argentina, in the hope of learning all they have to offer about their approach to sex and communication. I have chosen these areas to reflect a variety of religious influences, as well as drastically different views on sex, gender norms, and ways of approaching sexual violence. I will volunteer with organizations that are taking creative and revolutionary approaches to sex and communication, find homestays in each location, and take Indonesian and Hindi classes to enhance my communication skills in these countries."
Jakarta, Indonesia
August - October
Here, in the world’s most populous Muslim country, I planned to start my project by working to better understand what feminism looks like outside of a Western context, in order to frame the rest of my year. I connected with the Jakarta Feminist Discussion Group to help plan Feminist Fest Indonesia, which takes place every August. In addition to learning from the festival workshops (intersectional feminism, sexual reproductive health, etc.), I hoped to join a community of female activists, which would allow me to take part in their conversations already happening surrounding sex. Additionally, I planned to create art alongside an Indonesian artist and women’s rights activist, to investigate how female artists explore their own sexual journeys and challenges through art.
New Delhi, India
November - January
In India, a primarily Hindu country, I planned to investigate creative approaches to sex and consent education. I connected with The YP Foundation, an organization that uses peer-to-peer education to start important conversations about gender, sexuality, and social justice while building community and enhancing leadership skills. I planned to assist with their “Know Your Body, Know Your Rights” campaign that is working to increase access to sex-positive, medically-accurate sexuality education. I hoped to meet some of New Delhi’s teenagers, while also connecting with the organization’s interns who, like me, fight to change the culture in which they live.
Auckland, New Zealand
February - April
I chose this westernized country, with about half its population identifying as atheist, in order to provide a stark contrast to American’s purity culture on the topic of sex and communication. I connected with BodySafe, a consent education program for 14-15-year-old students that works to promote healthy relationships through respectful conversations about sex and consent. While collaborating with this organization, I hoped to learn what consent education looks like in high schools, as well as how this organization works to provide effective and inclusive information for indigenous Maori students, who make up roughly 15% of New Zealand’s population.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
May - July
In this primarily Catholic country, I planned to use my Spanish language skills to further immerse myself in the culture. Argentina was of particular interest to me because of the Ley de Educación Sexual Integral that requires comprehensive sex education starting at age five, as well as movements such as Ni Una Menos that has brought national attention to gender-based violence. I connected with the Foundation for Study and Investigation of Women, which works to promote the rights of women and girls, as well as the equality of genders through developing programs surrounding issues such as gender-based violence, and sex education. Lastly, I planned to assist with the city’s new initiative called #ChauTabú that provides accurate and accessible sexual and reproductive health information and strives to decrease the stigma surrounding conversations about sex.
TITLE OF THE CALLOUT BLOCK
TRANSFORMATION
The application for the Watson is a pretty intensive process – it involves a lot of research, reaching out to people you’ve never met, and endless writing and rewriting, but perhaps the hardest part is figuring out how to believe in yourself enough to convince other people to believe that you’re capable of traveling across the world, by yourself, for 12 months to pursue a project you’re passionate about.
As I tried to find this confidence within me, I was absolutely blown away by the love and support I found myself surrounded by throughout this process. Every step of the way there were people who were there believing in me. And this wasn’t just my family or my friends, it was also my professors, and my bosses, and people from all of the different communities I was part of on my campus.
As you can probably imagine, when I finally did find out that I didn't get it, it was pretty upsetting to hear. I had put every bit of myself into this application, and there was not a day that year that I didn’t spend imagining myself on this crazy adventure. But as I processed this loss, what I began to realize was that the transformation part, that already happened, even without the fellowship. This process taught me how to believe in myself in a way that I didn’t know that I could. They say that the Watson application is like a blueprint for your passion, and they’re right. This process helped me realize that I’m passionate about having dialogues about sex and communication, and understanding how we can create a culture of change. I have found that I am still able to channel all of this energy and curiosity into everything that I do, and I know that I will that I will take this confidence with me on all of my future adventures.