Three Macaulay Honors College Students Win the Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship

Macaulay Honors College sophomores Isabel Gouse, Melissa Lent and Karishma Malhotra are winners of the 2018 Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship. Three of fifteen winners chosen after a lengthy national selection process, the fellowship program will provide them with three years of personal, professional and cultural immersions in the U.S. and abroad.

Isabel Gouse, whose home campus is Hunter College, plans to explore her passion for human rights, public health, and refugee rights by working with organizations dedicated to those areas. “The fellowship provides me with the opportunity to explore various career paths that I may not have considered if it was not for the mentorship it provided.”

Melissa Lent, also at Hunter, plans to develop technical skills, learn more about cultural and educational sectors, and seize opportunities to contribute to lasting social change. “I’m double majoring in Media and Creative Writing,” she explains. “There are a multitude of paths I would consider taking— journalism, production, marketing, event planning, and many more.” She expects the experience to help her hone her aspirations and focus her efforts where she can have the greatest impact.

Karishma Malhotra, whose home campus is Baruch College, is looking forward to an academic journey that channels her passions for positive change. “Being a Financial Mathematics major, many people assume that I have set career path and job description,” she explains. “I am excited to learn the different ways I can apply myself to the world and come back with a new perspective that would be impossible to gain by sitting in a classroom.”

The fellowship includes work in non-profit, for-profit and governmental organizations, spending two summers in New York and a third overseas.

Watson fellows are represented in top graduate programs and go on to become leaders in the fields of law, medicine, public policy, business, and the arts. They earn numerous Fulbright, Truman, Coro, Urban Fellow, and other prestigious awards.

The Watson Foundation was created in 1961 in the name of Thomas J. Watson Sr., the founder of IBM. In 1999, the Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship was created to engage undergraduate students early in their college career, and expose them to the world of work through challenging, cross sector internships and mentorship.

About Macaulay Honors College

Ranked as one of the top ten honors colleges in the nation, Macaulay provides exceptional students with a rigorous education drawing on the vast academic resources of the nation’s largest urban university and the rich cultural diversity of New York City. Our students represent the top 4% of the 13,000+ incoming freshmen on eight CUNY campuses, including Baruch, Brooklyn, City, Hunter, John Jay, Lehman, and Queens Colleges, and the College of Staten Island.

With close guidance from a team of dedicated advisors, Macaulay students design a highly personalized academic program with access to classes in more than 400 majors across the CUNY system. All Macaulay students must either study abroad, participate in an approved internship, or conduct independent research. Underwritten entirely by private philanthropy, Opportunities Funds support these activities by providing students with dedicated travel and fellowship funds. In addition, Macaulay students who are residents of New York State receive a full-tuition merit scholarship.macaulay.cuny.edu.

-###-