Three thousand graduating seniors from 50 schools filled out applications for the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Now, six months later, two University seniors have been awarded the fellowship, and will receive $25,000 each for one year of independent study outside of the United States. The catch? They must create, execute and evaluate their own projects without the heavy hand of students, parents, teachers and administrators.

This year’s recipients from the University are Cedric Bien ’08 and Rebecca Littman ’08. Littman explained the ultimate independence that the fellowship offers its recipients.

“You have to make your own connections and contacts so that, when you get there, you will be able to carry out your project,” she said. “You’re not allowed to go back to places where you’ve spent time. It’s about exploration and independence, so you’re not allowed to work with any organization. You’re not tied to anyone.”

Bien and Littman are two of 50 college seniors from 23 states and five foreign countries to receive the fellowship this year.

With the money she receives, Littman will carry out her project, “Victim and Perpetrator: Reintegrating the Former Child Soldier.” A psychology and government double major, she originally learned about the plight of child soldiers when she spent a semester in Uganda. There, Littman worked for eight months as ground coordinator at a girls’ soccer program in a displaced persons camp.

“The rebel army abducted child soldiers,” she said. “I met some of them, visited rehabilitation centers and talked to social workers. My time there helps because I had no idea how to make this [project] happen.”

Also inspired by prior traveling experience, Bien’s project, “Documenting the Chinese Diaspora: a Photographic Ethnography of Chinatowns,” grew out of time spent in Cuba and Nicaragua.

“When I visited these countries, I was surprised to find immigrant Chinese communities around the world,” Bien said. “This motivated me to major in East Asian Studies, learn Chinese, and sparked my interest in my Chinese heritage.”

Although both Bien and Littman have survived the arduous application process, the hard part is still to come. Littman plans to visit three neighboring countries in West Africa during her project—fewer than most recipients of the fellowship—while Bien has a list of eight.

“I’m going to countries all recovering from conflict—four to five months in Sierra Leone and Liberia, enough time to get my bearings, and two to three [months] in Guinea,” Littman said. “This is rare, but the decision was easy because you’re not allowed to go to countries with state department travel warnings, and you have to speak the language, so that knocked out a number of places.”

Littman’s initial idea was to document the former child soldiers’ re-integration experiences, but language barriers forced her to rework the project. The current project will investigate government policies and programs that have been created to aid soldiers after war. More specifically, Littman plans to look into how and why government policies and programs were created, including interactions among government officials, community organizers, local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the international community. Additionally, she hopes to analyze the programs themselves, looking at factors such as monetary and religious limitations.

“During the peace process, the government builds policies for those coming back from war,” Littman said. “People have written about the programs, but not how or why they were developed and why they are the way they are.”

Bien plans to examine Chinese communities in Australia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, Paraguay and Peru.

“I want to find out who these people are and why they left China in the first place, partly because my own parents were immigrants,” Bien said. “Both left China for political reasons, but at different times and under different circumstances.”

Although his parents spoke only English at home so that he would assimilate into American culture, Bien’s background gives him an advantage over some of the cultural and language barriers that Littman has encountered.

“It was really easy to start a conversation with the people I met because we both stand out there,” Bien said. “We have a shared cultural heritage, so most of the people were really open with me.”

Although Bien presented specific ideas for his proposal to the Wesleyan committee during the first interview, such as religious motifs and urban portraits, he thinks that the University committee misinterprets the fellowship’s mission.

“The Wesleyan committee was especially exacting in understanding the details and seeing that the project was thought-out,” he said. “But I don’t want to impose my own lens on my subjects. I’m not trying to weave a narrative in documenting these people’s lives.”

The University committee interviewed eight students before selecting four nominees to be interviewed by former Watson fellows. Littman remembers the committee drilling her on the project, which she had only been working on for a month at the time of the interview.

“The fellowship understands that the project is not perfect or set,” she said. “They’re investing in the people, not the project.”

Bien and Littman both noted that, while the first interviewers wanted to see specific details and pointed out the project’s weaknesses, the Watson fellows had different motives.

“What’s unique about the Watson is that you’re not required to do a project at the end,” Littman said. “You have to do a write-up for the foundation and attend a conference, but because the topics are all over the board, they don’t want to limit you. It’s about the experience.”

The differences between the two interview processes, Bien explained, may be indicative of the divide between college and the real world.

“College is supposed to be about developing independent thinking, but you’re rarely by yourself,” Bien said. “I want to end up in public health but, while I’m away, I want to explore other things. The fellowship is an opportunity to explore something not in the realm of a career or even a specific path.”

Littman plans to write up her findings in the hopes of one day presenting her research to government officials and NGOs. Until then, however, she said that she is excited to see West Africa and where the next 12 months on her own will take her.

“My time in Uganda made me more confident, but it’s still definitely terrifying and surreal,” Littman said. “There are a lot of researchers coming through these countries, only to never [be] heard from…again. In order to feel justified prancing around West Africa, I have to find some way to have an effect on those communities.”