Jessie McComb, a candidate for May graduation from Hamilton College, has been awarded a Fulbright Grant to India. The title of her project is "Sustainable Energy and Traditional Arts: Changing Functionality of Traditional Culture." McComb proposes to examine the role of sustainable energy in rural electrification through an affiliation with the American non-government organization, Greenstar, Inc. She will also research the effect of modern technology, made available through electricity, on traditional arts and crafts. In both parts of the study she will focus on the change in functionality of new technology and of old traditions.
The purpose of the Fulbright Program is to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge and skills. The program is designed to give recent college graduates opportunities for personal development and international experience.
It offers invaluable opportunities to meet and work with people of the host country, sharing daily life as well as professional and creative insights. The program promotes cross-cultural interaction and mutual understanding on a person-to-person basis in an atmosphere of openness, academic integrity and intellectual freedom. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by Congress to the Department of State. The U.S. Student Program awards approximately 900 grants annually and currently operates in more than 140 countries worldwide.
After completion of her Fulbright research trip, McComb, who has a double major of art history and physics at Hamilton, hopes to enroll in the University of California, Berkeley in the Asian studies doctorate program concentrating in Indian studies. After graduation she plans to pursue a professorship or curator position.
McComb, the daughter of William and Cherie McComb of Leominster, Mass., is the recipient of a Morris K. Udall Scholarship (2002), a Henry Luce Foundation Grants, John Schickler II award and Charles A. Dana Scholarship. She is a member of Hamilton's Arts Steering committee, Green Team Architecture committee, Hamilton Environmental Action Group, and the Emerson Literary Society.
