Standout students earn prestigious scholarship Meet Middlebury's newest crop of Fulbright recipients

Author: Dina Magaril

Caeli Nistel-Schnabel '08, was one of three Iowans who applied for the Fulbright, but she was the only one to receive approval on her independent project studying secondary education for the cognitively disabled in Wuhan, China.

"All of us Iowans would band together in the library and talk about corn and stuff," joked Nistel-Schnabel of the students' bonding experience. The Religion major spent last spring studying abroad in Hangzhou, China, with fellow Fulbright recipient Merisha Enoe '08. It was not until she got back from abroad, though, that she realized she was interested in incorporating China into her thesis for the Religion department.

The graduating senior recently handed in a draft of her thesis, a project that focuses on how Chinese religious backgrounds influence attitudes towards disability. It was this senior thesis that made her realize her topic could extend to a Fulbright proposal.

"Disabled people are even less visible in Chinese society than in American society," said Nistel-Schnabel, whose involvement in the issue lies closer to home than a thesis deadline - Nistel-Schnabel's sister has Down syndrome.

Nistel-Schnabel hopes to conduct interviews to supplement the ethnographic research she will be doing to see how religion and spirituality play a role in how people deal with disabilities in China.

Nistel-Schnabel reassured eager applicants not to worry too much about Middlebury's warnings to start your Fulbright application in the summer, though she admitted it could have helped her.

"They scare you to start early or you're doomed," she said.

Instead, the member of the orchestra (she plays clarinet) and the chamber music group at Middlebury, recommended utilizing all of the College's resources to explore the options out there.

"Professors here are really excited to share their expertise, whether it's your major advisor or someone who is into whatever you're doing, you should really take the opportunity of being on campus to pick their brain," she said.

As to whether she and Enoe plan to continue their time abroad together for a second round, Nistel-Schnabel lamented that she will be pretty far away from her study abroad friend. "But we are tentatively planning a Christmas get together," she said.



When Michael Fletcher '08 bought his one-way plane ticket to Spain this summer he was hoping he would not need to return to his native Katonah, N.Y. for at least a year. Fletcher and Sam Morrill '08 had just received the Deacon Boardman Prize Fund for Peace that would send the pair off on a two-month summer excursion to Madrid, a "middle ground to reconcile Cuba and her satellite communities."

Fletcher and Morrill plan to conduct interviews that they hope to later incorporate into a film about Cuban exiles in Spain. To top off what already sounded like an amazing summer, Fletcher was thrilled to receive a letter in the mail from The Fulbright Foundation informing him that his proposal to teach English in Spain had been accepted. "It was really up in the air," said Fletcher, "but I was so happy to get the Fulbright."

Fletcher's was the only English Teaching Assistantship Grant accepted out of all the College applicants, and his program will send him to a bilingual elementary school in Madrid this coming September.

"I wanted to go to Spain over somewhere in Latin America because it was the only site where I knew I would be working directly with kids," said Fletcher, referring to the focus of the Latin American programs on teaching English to teachers of English rather than students.

But this will not be Fletcher's first time in front of the classroom. Last year, the English major was involved with the student teaching program at Mary Hogan Elementary, an experience that he said "intensified his desire to teach elementary school."

Nor will his time spent in Spain be the first teaching English as a second language. Fletcher is involved with the ESL program at Middlebury that brings student teachers to Mexican Migrant Farm workers in the community.

While excited about the opportunity to be called Señor Fletcher by a classroom of doting children, the Fulbright recipient is equally thrilled to spend his last "free" summer with one of his closest friends. "Since Cuba, Sam and I have been pretty much inseparable," said Fletcher, "and I'm really happy that we're going to have this time together." As for advice to future Fulbright applicants, "Don't be intimidated by the application process," Fletcher said, "because it's definitely worth applying to."



A Biochemistry and Chinese double major, Merisha Enoe '08 was inspired to propose her independent Fulbright project after spending a semester abroad in China last year. Enoe will be looking at environmental sustainable development projects in Xinjiang, China, working in affiliation with Xinjiang Agricultural University.

"I'm from New York," said the Brooklyn native, "and when I got to Middlebury I found a new appreciation for the environment. I've really learned a lot from the students here," Enoe said about regarding the environmental component to her proposal.

As good as Enoe's proposal sounds on paper, it was a long journey until she reached her final product. "I spent a lot of time rewriting the grant over and over again," she said. Enoe was not afraid to ask for a little help from her friends either, and cites her discussions with Professor of Political Science Jeffrey Cason and Professor and Director of Student Fellowships & Health Professions Advising Arlinda Wickland as crucial to writing her proposal. "I was keeping an open mind about it and I wanted as many people to read it as possible so I could get as many perspectives as I could," said Enoe. During her semester abroad, Enoe interned with the environmental Future Generation China on the Green Long March, which brought Enoe along 10 different routes in China to promote conservation and expand upon the various sustainable projects that were already functioning there. Her last trip brought her to the province of Xinjiang, where she learned about the Karez Irrigation System, a sustainable system implemented in a community where water is a scarce resource. During her year away Enoe hopes to study indigenous as well as modern projects going on within the region, focusing her research on how people are working to maintain their environment and establish sustainable futures for themselves.

As for the summer, Enoe hopes to spend it in New York reestablishing connections with contacts she made during her time abroad, as well as start studying for her GREs. "I'm hoping to take them before I leave the U.S.," she said.