Anton Segal Memorial Scholarship Fund
Fellowship Guidelines
Purpose:
The Anton Segal Memorial Traveling Fellowship will provide for a summer
of foreign travel to a non-Western European country or countries.
Administration:
The Anton Segal Memorial Traveling Fellowship Fund will be administered
by Harvard University's Office of the Recording Secretary. The Fellowship
award(s) will be granted through Harvard University's Office of Career
Services via a Prize Selection Committee. The Committee will include
one or more founding family members and/or friends. At least 50.1 percent
of the Committee will be comprised of Harvard University affiliates,
namely Office of Career Services employees and/or tutors from the various
Harvard University undergraduate residential houses.
Eligibility:
Harvard College rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors (i.e. current
freshmen, sophomores, and juniors) will be eligible for the Fellowship.
Award:
The number of Fellowship award(s) will be determined each year by the
Committee, but at least one Fellowship award will be granted in each
academic year for travel the following summer. Each Fellowship award
will be a minimum of $2,500 denominated in real 1999 dollars. All annual
payout amounts available from the Fund, as determined by the Office
of the Recording Secretary, in excess of $2,500 (in real 1999 dollars)
for each Fellowship award granted will be awarded at the discretion
of the Committee. All annual payout amounts available from the Fund
that are not awarded will be reinvested into or credited to the Fund.
Selection Criteria:
The Fellowship is being established by the family and close friends
of Anton Segal, a 1992 honors graduate of Harvard College, to honor
his remarkable but tragically short life and to recognize some of the
qualities that made him a unique and irreplaceable individual. Anton
lived abroad for more than five years after graduating from Harvard,
first teaching English in Japan and then working as a scuba diving instructor
in the Sinai. During his time abroad, Anton particularly loved visiting
less well-traveled countries such as Cambodia, the Philippines, Jordan,
and Lebanon, and he had several of his articles detailing these experiences
published in wide-circulation travel magazines. The Fellowship aims
to recognize his love of exploring off-the-beaten-path locations, meeting
and getting to know the people who lived there, and writing about his
experiences in a way that brought them alive for those fortunate enough
to read his accounts.
The Fellowship will be awarded to men or women who have shown the
same combination of intelligence, warmth, creativity, originality, inquisitiveness,
sense of humor, and genuine love of meeting and getting to know people
of all cultures and backgrounds that made Anton such an extraordinary
person. Academic performance, while important, will not be as vital
as these personal traits and the ability to translate one's experiences
into interesting and original prose. Grantees should have an intense
and genuine interest in broadening her/his horizons and understanding
of the world.
The Fellowship envisions trips that will be devoted as much to "living
into" whatever culture Grantees choose to explore -- in particular by
getting to know people -- as to seeing famous sights. Grantees should
attempt to see the places to which they travel in a manner not described
in any guidebook and with a constant eye to new and unusual experiences.
As an end product, Grantees will be expected to write either a travel
article or short story based on their travels with the intention of
submitting the work for publication.