“Why do we have to learn this?”
With that question-posed by a student in a classroom that Rebecca Gergely '95 was observing during a term in
Barbados came an idea that led to a year of study abroad.
“I was struck by the similarity of the student's question to that of any American student,” she says. “I became interested in the way different factors of a society influence its education system and how the goals of education evolve in a particular way.”
Her idea recently won her a one-year grant
of $16,000 from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation to support travel and study abroad. Only sixty students from
forty-three
American colleges and universities received the prestigious fellowships this year.
Starting this fall, Gergely will travel to England, Dominica, and Japan to determine how the goals of education are influenced by society. She will examine a number of
factors parental involvement, the role of religion, the status of “vocational” vs. “academic” careers, and government standards for education.
Gergely is an English major from Stowe, Vt., and she plans to enter the College's master of arts in teaching program when she returns in the fall of 1996.