Mary Childs wins Watson Fellowship

Mary Childs '08 has been named a Thomas J. Watson Fellow for 2008-2009. She is one of 50 students nationally to receive a Watson fellowship this year.

Administered in cooperation with 50 outstanding private colleges and universities throughout the United States, the Watson provides a grant of $25,000 to college graduates of unusual promise to engage in a year of independent, purposeful exploration and travel outside of the United States. Inaugurated by the Thomas J. Watson Foundation in 1968, the fellowship program has granted more than 2,500 Watson Fellowship awards, with stipends totaling more than $30 million.

Childs' project, "The Eye of the Beholder: The Cartography of Faces," will take her to France, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, China, Brazil and Morocco to explore the topography of a land through portraiture.

"I've always loved painting and art," said Childs. " Winning the fellowship means an opportunity to combine two of my greatest loves: the world and the canvas."

Her project will trace cultures as they manifest themselves in the faces of their own people. "It's a new cartography: map-making with faces," Childs explained. "As I traveled across Southeast Asia, I watched the faces change with the terrain. Cheekbones rose and fell and hair was braided and hidden in turbans. Even the tying of a sari expressed where my feet were. Every location in the world looks different, but more interestingly, every inhabitant reflects those differences."

A native of Richmond, Va., Childs is the recipient of the Journalism Department's Landon B. Lane Scholarship and was a 2007 Reynolds Intern.

Childs, who turned down an internship with Bloomberg, L.P., in New York in order to accept the Watson, plans to pursue a career in business journalism following her year abroad. "I think Bloomberg understood that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," she said. "I hope they're still interested when I get back."

Pamela Luecke, Donald W. Reynolds Professor of Business Journalism and Childs' academic advisor, is confident that Childs' Watson experience will further her career plans.

"Mary is a gifted student with great promise as a business journalist," Luecke said. "The extraordinary opportunity to travel the world as a Watson Fellow will strengthen her understanding of the global economy and enrich her perspective as a journalist."