Blending a fascination with bridges and a personal background as a Vietnamese immigrant of Chinese ancestry, Trinh Thai '96 will spend next year studying the social, political, and economic effects of historic bridges in England, Italy, China, and Japan.
Thai's plans recently won her a Watson Fellowship, a one-year grant of $16,000 from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation to travel and study abroad. Only sixty students from fifty American colleges and universities received the fellowship.
“To me a bridge symbolizes an obstacle overcome, man triumphing over nature, and even the passageway to other worlds,” Thai says. “I think we can learn a lot from ancient bridges. With all of our modern technology, we often lose sight of simplicity.”
Thai will photograph bridges in the several countries, explore why they were built, and examine any myths and stories that surround them.
In England, she will spend a month exploring slab or “clapper” bridges. She then will move to Italy, where she will spend a month studying the bridges built by the Romans. Most of her year will be spent in Asia, where she hopes to learn more about her cultural identity. “I feel that not enough emphasis is put upon what can be learned from Asia, in particular China and Japan.”
Corinne DeVoe '96, a mechanical engineering major, won a fellowship from Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society.
The Donald A. Stark Fellowship will provide $10,000 for advanced study. DeVoe plans to continue her work in mechanical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley.
In addition to being a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Society of Women Engineers, she has served as an officer of Union's chapter of Tau Beta Pi; of Pi Tau Sigma, the mechanical engineering honor society; and of the Society of Automotive Engineers.