Tag Archives: Watson Fellowship

Kate – The Leather Backpack

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Since November, I’ve been anxiously waiting for March 15th to roll around wish hopes that I will be named as a 2011-2012 Watson Fellow. The Watson Fellowship is a “one year grant for independent study and travel outside the United States awarded to graduating college students nominated from participating institutions.” If I receive the Watson, I will spend all of next year studying slam poetry communities abroad in Germany, Spain, South Africa, Australia and Chile. Now, the day has finally come and I feel like a little kid on Christmas, waiting to see if Santa brought me switches and coal or fun surprises.Philosophically, I’m torn all over the place but the same old Christmas-time question roles around in my head, Have I been good this year? Continue reading →

The Graduate Series – Blake Evitt ’10 and “l’art du déplacement”

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What does one do with a liberal arts education? How about hop around the globe studying people who jump off and around buildings?  That is what Blake Evitt, a former Davidson French major decided to do directly after graduation in 2010.

If you listen to Pod’Cats, you may remember Blake.  Blake is a practitioner of Parkour, and is spending this year studying the French martial art with funding from the Watson Fellowship.  Commonly known as “free-running”, and recently featured in a James Bond flick, Parkour started as “l’art du déplacement.” Literally translated, it means the “art of displacement” or the “art of movement.” The goal of the art is to provide the basis for moving from one point to another regardless of any obstacles in the way.  As it has evolved, Parkour has become less of an athletic pursuit and more of a life philosophy. In fact, the concept of overcoming obstacles is what initially drew Blake to Parkour. Continue reading →