As graduation fast approaches, most outgoing college students are looking for a job or perhaps exploring graduate school opportunities. One local student has an entirely different plan for the next year.

Mary Phillips, a senior at Hamilton College, will travel to Guatemala, Ethiopia, India and South Africa.

“It’s a great opportunity to learn more about the world,” Phillips said.

Phillips, of Jamesville, was awarded the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for 2011-12. She will receive $25,000 to cover her travel expenses as she pursues independent research of women’s rights across the globe.

The Watson fellowship provides one-year grants for independent study and exploration outside the United States to 40 graduating seniors nationwide nominated by one of the foundation’s 40 member schools. This year’s group of 40 was chosen from 150 finalists.

Phillips’ project is titled, “Safe Spaces: All-Girl Environments and Their Role in Community Development.” Phillips wants to see what resources girls, ages 10 to 19, have to improve their lives in the four countries she’s visiting.

Phillips, a comparative literature and Hispanic studies dual major, became interested in this topic while she was an intern at MADRE in New York City last summer. MADRE is a not-for-profit organization working to provide better opportunities for women worldwide.

“It’s very intriguing how this ‘safe place’ concept plays out in the developing countries,” Phillips said.

Phillips is interested in understanding what educational resources these girls have available to them, how effective they are, how to fix them if there are any problems and what may be helpful to their daily lives, she said.

The fellowship requires spending 365 days outside of the country. Phillips plans to leave before Aug. 1 and spend about three months in each country.

Some of her work will include seeing how rural Ethiopian girls deal with the high rates of teen pregnancy and teen marriage and studying South Africa’s struggles with HIV/AIDS.

Phillips plans on living in hostels or small apartments during her stays, but she hasn’t quite figured everything out yet, she said. Her main focus so far has been making contacts in the area so she can have the kind of experience she’s looking for, Phillips said.

Phillips’s hope is that at some point a girl and her family will feel comfortable enough to have her stay with them at their home so she can gain a closer perspective of their day-to-day lives, she said.

Phillips is required to send a report detailing her experience to the Thomas J. Watson Foundation every two to three months. Upon returning next year to the United States, award recipients will meet to share their experience at a four-day conference at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine.

At first, Phillips thought she would work for AmeriCorps or Peace Corps after graduating, but when she heard about this opportunity she immediately applied, she said.

"Why not go out for a year and travel?" Phillips said.

The application process took eight months and required coming up with a very detailed budget, no easy task, she said.

Phillips is a bit nervous about the project, but she’s mostly excited and feels like it was definitely worth the effort, she said.

“Oh my gosh, in a year I’ll be in South Africa and I’ll have been gone for nine months and have all these experiences,” Phillips said.

Phillips hopes her year abroad will give her a better perspective as she plans to look for work within the not-for-profit sector when she returns home, she said.

"It'll be interesting," Phillips said.



"It's a great opportunity to learn more about the world. ... It's very intriguing how this 'safe place' concept plays out in the developing countries."

— Mary Phillips, speaking on her research on women’s rights and community development



Contact Lorenzo Arguello at larguello@syracuse.com or 470-2259.

By Lorenzo Arguello

Contributing writer