The last decade has seen an impressive run of former DHS grads becoming Fulbright Scholars. Their achievements have generally been noted in this newspaper – but not by screaming fans who’ve packed the bleachers to cheer them on.
The latest local Fulbright winner is 26-year-old Megan Westervelt, DHS class of 2005.
Ohio University – where she recently earned her master’s of arts in photography – was so proud it paid for a screen ad in May at the Durango-La Plata County Airport. Her name and face were in lights for anyone at the baggage carousel to see. It’s a perhaps too-rare example of an academic achievement getting some serious attention.
The Fulbright, administered by the U.S. State Department, pays for the recipient to work on a project outside the United States with some social or world significance. Westervelt is heading to Ecuador in September for a 10-month study on the impact of the oil industry on biodiversity and indigenous cultures.
Westervelt said in a recent phone interview that she didn’t personally need the recognition but realizes it does help achieve a goal larger than herself: getting publicity for her research.
“Unfortunately, the fact is you need that to get your work where more people will learn from it,” she said. “If you get a great scholarship for athletics, I think that’s fantastic. But I’m not sure how telling people about that is really going to help a greater cause at all.”
Westervelt said she was told there were about 10,000 applicants for 800 scholarships. The 18-page application and interviews were arduous, but after spending 20 years trying to reach such an apex, she saw it through.
“I think I’ve been working toward this my entire life,” she said. “It’s a pretty magical feeling.”
With oil extraction looming in the upper reaches of the Amazon basin in Ecuador, she’ll be documenting conservation efforts and the plight of the Huaorani tribe. Some consider the tribe, which only in the last half-century was exposed to the Western world, to be endangered.
Before her Fulbright work begins in September, she’s heading to the same region this summer to help create photos and videos for a museum at Yasuní National Park.
“I feel like I have this huge responsibility now,” she said. “I don’t just see it as an award.
“If I have to have that (recognition) for people to connect to what I’m doing, and (realize) I’m not just a crazy environmentalist, then OK, I’ll take it,” she said.
johnp@durangoherald.com
