Lauren Interess Adventure Fellowship

Encouraging students to embrace the spirit of adventure that Lauren loved

About the Fellowship
Lauren Interess ’98 loved geosciences, adventure and the outdoors. The Lauren Interess Adventure Travel Fellowship, endowed in her memory by the Interess family, funds students to undertake a geoscience-related field or travel project. The fellowship provides an opportunity for our students to explore the world, following Lauren’s lead and their own hearts. If you have dreamed of an adventure that you would like to make real, please consider applying for the fellowship.

The Application Process
The Lauren Interess Adventure Travel fellowship in Geosciences is available to majors and prospective majors. It provides funding for 2 students and a travel partner to pursue an earth-science adventure of their own design during WSP, spring break or the summer.

Lauren’s Tree, in the science quad outside Clark Hall

The application process is simple: come up with an idea, discuss it with a Geosciences faculty member, then write a short proposal (1-2 pages), outlining what you would like to do, and when you would like to do it. The proposal should include a budget and an outline of your expected itinerary. E-mail the proposal to the chair for consideration. There is no specific application deadline: we accept proposals on a rolling basis until a fellowship is awarded, however, due to the rolling deadline, funding runs out as applications are received and evaluated, so it is best to plan well ahead

What kind of idea? It could be a lot of things. Previous awardees have gone to the Shetland Islands to visit coastal erosion sites; to the desert southwest to visit dams and think about water issues; to Mongolia to travel around and look at environmental issues; to the Caribbean to investigate reef degredation; to South America to visit mining sites…the list of possible adventures is long, varied, and limited only by your imagination. To see what prior Fellowship winners have done, see the Fellows page.

When would you do this? Many options. Students have used the money to fund a Winter Study 99, take a Spring Break trip, or travel during the summer.

Still have questions? Contact any member of the Geos faculty – we’d be happy to discuss them with you!