Xavier’s Brueggeman Fellowship provides students opportunities to research
By Logan Davis, Staff Writer
The Brueggeman Fellowship Program is an experience for eight selected Xavier students to conduct an independent study in an international space.
“The students are chosen based upon the strength of their proposal, a sense that they have the maturity to do independent research and travel and the potential for their project to be transformative for them and for others,” the center’s website reads.
Xavier graduate and former Brueggeman fellow Sophie Boulter participated in the program last school year.
For her fellowship, Boulter conducted a study on the rise of nationalism in the United Kingdom.
Xavier’s Brueggeman Center for Dialogue office and building is located on campus, situated near Manor House Apartments.
“I saw a bunch of flyers all around the university. I emailed them with the different materials, my research proposal and resume,” she explained.
Interested students can also apply for the Fellowship Program on the Xavier website and complete an application.
Boulter recalled her time during the study she conducted.
“The Fellowship gives you a grant of around $3,000, and you have to figure out how you’re going to conduct some sort of research with that money,” Boulter said.
“I went around and interviewed a lot of people in both London and in Liverpool,” she continued.
While spending money on hotels in Liverpool, Boulter said she also lived with family she had in London.
“I’m quite thankful for the opportunity, overall. It was a very unique sort of program,” she said.
The Center provides a study area for Fellows to complete research, homework or hang out during down time during the day.
“It allowed for a lot of independence and let me kind of devise my own project, then work with a faculty member to let it come into fruition.”
Boulter, who is now a graduate student at Cambridge University and was a Philosophy, Politics and the Public and Political Science double major at Xavier, spoke about how she sees how the program affected her.
“(I) especially appreciate (the program) because it helped me prepare for the work that I’m doing now at Cambridge. So, it was nice to have that as a bit of a stepping-stone, so to speak,” she said.
The fellowship program has three goals cited on the website: research, immersion and self-confidence.
The center has sent students to over 60 different countries and draws from graduate and undergraduate students from all four of Xavier’s colleges and a wide range of disciplines.
The center is currently accepting applications, and can be found on their website.
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