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Kelsey Bonham ’22 and John Morgan ’22 were recipients of the Kevin Williams ’10 Endowed Memorial Fellowship during the spring of 2020. Then came the first wave of COVID-19, and like many others, they had to re-evaluate their plans and goals.

The Kevin Williams ’10 fellowship was established in memory of Kevin Williams ’10 to provide stipend support for one or more geography majors to travel while studying abroad. Kelsey and John had initially planned to spend the award on travel during study abroad programs for the 2020–2021 academic year. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic and the shut-down of virtually all forms of travel.

John is excited to announce his plans for the award. He will be using the funds to prepare for his postgraduate role as a U.S. college counselor at Anatolia College in Thessaloniki, Greece. Some of the Williams fellowship funds have gone toward facilitating language instruction in both Greek and Albanian, and he will also be using the funds to travel while living in Greece. John comments, “The overall process was extremely meaningful. I appreciated coming to understand the background, meaning, and intention behind the establishment of the award and found that writing my statement of purpose for the award allowed me to better interrogate my plans.”

Kelsey was initially awarded the Kevin Williams ’10 fellowship in conjunction with a plan to study abroad in Trinidad in the spring of 2021, but she had to change her plans when the program was cancelled due to the pandemic. Instead, she used the funding for an independent project that still allowed her to travel, albeit differently. 

She writes, “I elected to study remotely and then take a leave of absence during my junior year, which allowed me to acquire, renovate, and sail a 30-foot boat from Maryland to Florida and back. This project was completely revolutionary to my college experience — I learned about project management and hands-on skills, and I gained a level of independence and self-reliance that I did not know was possible. I also explored the southeastern coastline of the United States in a unique way and met other likeminded travelers whose worldviews have informed my own. I built a brand for myself on social media, gaining recognition in the international sailing community through Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and local magazines.

“The skills, experiences, and connections I have had as a result of this project have made me consider more career paths on and near the water, and after graduation I hope to use the sea time I got on this trip to pursue a Coast Guard master captain’s license and incorporate sailing into my passions for the environment, geography, and sustainability. The funding from this fellowship was a large part of what made it possible, and I am incredibly grateful that it helped me transform the pandemic’s effect on my college experience into something meaningful.”

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