Welcome to the home of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Experiential Learning Fellowship program. These fellowships support a wide range of undergraduate student projects including but not limited to support of research projects, Senior Capstone projects, travel to research conferences to present research, or project-oriented travel abroad associated with completion of majors or minors programs in the arts, humanities, or social sciences.

Currently, the Experiential Learning Fellowship consists of three funds and two externship opportunities.  The eligibility criteria for each opportunity varies.

Visit the “Funds and Opportunities” menu above to learn about these funds and opportunities.

Rocks Fellowship Awardee 2019: Elizabeth Hanna

Elizabeth “Liz” Hanna is a 2019 Spring Rocks Fellowship recipient and double majored in International Studies and Middle Eastern Studies. The Rocks Fellowship was used to support her attendance and participation in the fall 2019 “Philos Nexus” Conference in New York City. The conference is part of the Philos Project, a non-governmental organization that promotes pluralism in the Middle East, with a special emphasis on protecting and empowering Middle Eastern Christians and promoting interreligious and political dialogue.

Her primary goal in attending the Philos Nexus conference is to better her practical understanding of current events and issues facing Middle Eastern Christianity and minorities. In addition, she hopes to gain a better understanding of the region that fascinates her so much and skills that will propel her along her desired career path in a globally-focused, multi-ethnic region. She is a 2020 graduate of CWRU and is currently pursuing her masters degree at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.

Rocks Fellowship Awardee 2018: Nichola Bomani

Nichola Bomani (CWRU ’19) graduated from Case Western Reserve this spring with a double Bachelors in Biochemistry and Spanish, while on a pre-med track.  She was awarded the Rocks Fellowship in order to support her research in exploring the development of Latinx Muslim communities throughout the United States. This included traveling to the five U.S. cities with the largest established Latinx Communities: Houston, New York, Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles. In each city, she attended Latinx community events while conducting interviews with event participants to better understand the development of Latinx identity. Her project served as her honors thesis for her Spanish degree.

In addition, this past year she was invited to give a Tedx talk on the culture of saying “How are you?” You can see Nichola’s Tedx talk here.

She currently attends Case Western Reserve Medical School.

Rocks Fellowship Awardee 2019: Dominica Rollins

Dominica Rollins graduated with a bachelors degree in Classical Studies with an emphasis on Greek and Latin from CWRU in 2020. In addition, she also minored in Ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian Studies and Arabic Language. As a Rocks Fellowship recipient, she used the award opportunity to attend the American School of Classical Studies in Athens (ASCSA) Summer Session this year.

As a participant, she had the opportunity to travel throughout Greece with members of her field and learn from experts as they explored important sites of Classical Greece such as the Acropolis. She hopes to leverage this wonderful opportunity into future academic pursuits such as fieldwork and scholarly support, as well as professional networking. She is currently pursuing her masters in Classics at CWRU.

Rocks Fellowship Awardee 2018: Jacob Kordeleski

Jacob Kordeleski graduated in 2019 from CWRU with a dual major degree in Anthropology and Classics. He was the awarded the Rocks Fellowship in order to support his exploration of using 3D imaging in the photogrammetric analysis of classical artifacts, of which he worked on as an intern at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

You can see Jacob’s work in digital preservation here.

He subsequently presented the findings of his project at the annual Archaeological Institute of America (AIA). His presentation was entitled “Museum Applications of Photogrammetry – Digital Preservation at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.”

Rocks Fellowship Awardee 2020: Kimberly Osbern

Kimberly Osbern is a 2020 Francis J. and Earla E. Rocks Experiential Learning fellowship recipient and currently a rising senior pursuing a double major in International Studies and French. She is also pursuing a minor in Russian. Through the Rocks Fellowship award, Kimberly had the opportunity to conduct research on the effects of homophobic legislation on the LGBT community in the Russian Federation. Her project, the majority of it conducted in Russian, focused on researching Russian government documents and official websites in order to uncover information on the number of arrests and fines for LGBT activity both prior to and following the passage of the 2013 law banning “gay propaganda”, and its overall effect on the LGBT population in Russia since that time.

Through this project, Kimberly has gained experience navigating and comprehending foreign legislation, which will help her in her planned career as a Foreign Service Officer. She has also applied to conduct a Fulbright in Moldova next year, where she hopes to study the recent increase in Romanian nationalism by examining, among other things, changes in Moldovan legislation.

Kimberly will present the findings of her research next spring at Intersections to the CWRU campus community.

Highlights

June 2020 Announcements: Deadline Extended to Apply for Experiential Learning Fellowships