Peter W. Knox ’06 (above) used his Comegys Bight Fellowship grant in the summer of 2005 to travel to the funeral of his literary hero, Hunter S. Thompson, whose ashes were fired from a 100-foot-tall, fist-shaped cannon in Woody Creek, Colo. Knox later published accounts of his adventure in several publications, including Five Magazine, and landed a job with a major New York publishing house after graduation from Washington College. For more on his experiences as a Comegys Bight Fellow, click here.
Student Fellowships
To make possible independent learning experiences that take students beyond the classroom, the C.V. Starr Center disburses more than $10,000 in fellowship grants each year to Washington College undergraduates. The Comegys Bight Fellowships fund summer research in American studies, and the Frederick Douglass Fellowships support spring-semester research in African-American studies and related fields (as well as bringing a visiting scholar to Chestertown each year to meet with students). Subjects have ranged from a journey to Paris in the footsteps of Henry Miller, to a search for a vanished 18th-century farming community, to an oral history of integration in local public schools. Each fellowship includes a faculty-mentor component, allowing the recipient to learn advanced research skills from a designated professor.
New for the 2007-08 academic year is the Presidential Fellows Program, a special opportunity to participate in the nationally prestigious Presidential Fellows Program run by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for the Study of the Presidency.
Click here for more information on the Starr Center’s fellowship grants, including past projects, eligibility guidelines, applications, and deadlines:
Comegys Bight Fellowships
Frederick Douglass Fellowships
Presidential Fellows Program
