Carleton College seniors Henry Brock and Megan Orwig each have been awarded a $22,000 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Brock and Orwig are among 60 fellows who will spend one year pursuing independent projects outside the U.S. They were chosen from a field of 1,000 applicants.

Brock, a physics major from Bemidji, Minn., will journey to Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, England, Ireland, South Africa and Japan, where he will explore his long interest in blacksmithing. Orwig, a theater arts major from Kankakee, Ill., will spend a year in Mali, New Zealand, Ireland and Scotland, as part of her study of lullabies native to each location.

Brock, who was raised in Guthrie, Minn., and graduated from Bemidji High School, has been interested in blacksmithing since he was 14. During his fellowship, he will travel to three continents and several countries, with stays in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, England, Ireland, South Africa and Japan. At each stop, Brock plans to work with blacksmith experts and students. He will serve apprenticeships in these stops, but he is not eyeing blacksmithing as a profession. Rather, Brock said he wants to pursue the craft as a life-long hobby. After his fellowship, he plans to go to graduate school for engineering.

"Many blacksmiths make a good living; it’s definitely viable work," Brock said. "I intend to continue to do it for a long time."

Brock said that he had already planned to take a year off between graduation and graduate school. In fact, he had planned a journey not unlike the one ahead, but the fellowship will allow his travels to be more exhaustive. "I have a strong interest in getting better at this craft," he said. "And I would prefer to do it sooner rather than later."

Brock has pursued his interest in blacksmithing while at Carleton. He works in the art department’s welding shop and one of his projects this term is to build a gas forge. He has been asked to create pieces for Carleton staff, and has also turned out key rings, dinner bells, door handles and curtain rod holders. He hopes to move on to balcony railings, gates and stairway railings.

Despite his years of effort, Brock said he still considers himself "a rank beginner," which is one reason he is devoting a year to learning the craft — but he said that acquiring additional skill is only part of the reason for his journey.

"The skills are the doorway, the entry point," he said. "I have a deep-rooted interest in improving my skills, but I am also interested in diplomacy.

"For me, this is the best path to take. Blacksmithing gives me one form of communication with people, even if we don’t share the same language. I am guessing the most valuable thing I’ll take from this is a deeper understanding of how people work and live and play in other countries."

Brock wants to use his knowledge to bridge gaps between himself and other people.

"The idea," he said, "is to understand another culture to the point where you can communicate pretty freely while respecting each other’s differences and exchange ideas to an honorable end."

Orwig’s plan to is to study lullabies. She will travel to Mali in West Africa, New Zealand, Ireland and Scotland to learn about the lullabies native to each location, sing with mothers and their children, make recordings of their songs, learn the songs’ origin and history and discover the lullaby’s impact on daily life. In many countries, Orwig said, lullabies are not consistent with traditional American lullabies, which are often well known songs. The lullabies Orwig plans to study range from traditional songs to those that are functional, such as stories sung to tell genealogical history. Orwig said that by studying lullabies she would better understand and appreciate the most fundamental relationship in any society—the gift of a parent’s song to a child.

The nature of her work will require Orwig to stretch her mind as well as invest her emotions. "This project is so visceral," she said. "I need to be very emotionally connected to people and so I’ll have to develop a level of intimacy with individuals. I’ll have to put myself on the line, so people will respond to that. I think that’s a real challenge."

Before she leaves, Orwig has several minor challenges — finding visas, immunizations, a credit card and plane tickets. She also wants to learn languages and find places to live, which she’ll have to do while she finishes course work and prepares to graduate.

"It hasn’t hit me that I am doing this yet," Orwig said. "It is so exciting for someone to say ‘We’re going to give you money and you can go wherever you want.’ The other side of that is that you have to go."

Orwig said she is not sure what she will do after completing the fellowship. At some point, she plans to teach. She also wants to use the performing skills she’s honed at Carleton.

As far as a career, Orwig said, "I don’t know if my life is going to work that way. I’m not sure I believe in that word. I don’t think my future is going to be a very linear one. I think it will be going forward but perhaps not by the shortest route."

As part of the Watson Fellowship application process, Brock and Orwig each drafted a five-page project description and a five-page personal statement. Upon their return, they will present their findings to the Foundation.