Three BC Students Win Watson Fellowships
7/6/2009
Javeria Hashmi, Christine Pigott and Ilya Ryvin—all students entering their junior year at Brooklyn College—have won Jeanette K. Watson fellowships, an award that provides three consecutive years of paid summer internships, mentoring support and many networking and professional development opportunities to select undergraduates at New York City colleges and universities.
This was the first year since 2006 that the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, which established the fellowship in 1999, chose three Brooklyn College students out of the 15 fellows it selects each year.
Javeria Hashmi, who is majoring in both political science and education, has started her first Watson internship at the Manhattan offices of the Institute for International Education, a nonprofit association that facilitates study and research abroad. Javeria’s first project is helping New York University to launch a new campus in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
"Education is really important in my family," says the Pakistani native, who moved to New York when she was seven and plans to be either a teacher or an immigration lawyer. "So not only is it exciting for me to work on this big project but it’s also great to realize how much I’m learning at the same time."
Javeria, who studied in Istanbul, Turkey, last summer, says she is especially looking forward to her third summer as a Watson fellow, when she would be able to get an internship abroad. "I would really like to go somewhere that I would never imagine myself going," she says.
Christine Pigott, who is majoring in both computer science and television and radio, is interning this summer at the Rubin Museum of Art, where she is managing an image database and assisting with a book the museum is publishing.
"I like that I get to participate in meetings and make suggestions, and that I have a wide variety of tasks," says the Brooklyn native, who plays the steel pan in a band and is working on a black belt in karate. She is a member of the Brooklyn College Television Club, the Chess Club, the National Black Science Student Organization and the Caribbean Student Union in addition to being the events coordinator for the Academic Club Association, and an ambassador for the Bridges to Computing program.
The renaissance woman says she has many career interests, including working as an FBI agent, a television show producer and director, and an entrepreneur.
"This summer I’m working with the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in program services," says Ilya Ryvin, a Belarus native who moved to New York at the age of four and is majoring in film. "They handle all the organizations that apply for city funding. I think it’s well over 1,000 organizations this year."
Ilya explains that he would like to initiate "my own internship for the second year. I want try something in the public sector, but I am not opposed to doing another nonprofit sector internship. For the third year, I look forward to spending my summer abroad. India is definitely a possibility."
His ultimate goal in life is "to make films that not only tell amazing stories but have some sort of impact on the world," he says. "I want to be a filmmaker so that I can bring awareness to issues that I deem important. If I can do that for a living it would be a dream come true."
The students will receive a total of $17,000 over three years—$5,000 for the first summer’s internship and $6,000 for the next two. The fellowship was established by the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, which was named after the founder of IBM, to increase life choices for exceptional undergraduate students.
