Eric Cox and Chris Fleming, along with 58 other recent graduates from some of the nation's top liberal arts colleges, will spend the next year in self-directed exploration and travel abroad as Watson Fellows.

Cox, a native of Gassaway, W. Va., graduated in May with a degree in mathematics. Fleming, from Ashland, Ky., graduated in December 1998 with a degree in biology. Award recipients are selected based on character, leadership potential, willingness to immerse themselves in new cultures and personal significance of the project proposed.

Chris Fleming

The $22,000 fellowship enables recipients to study intensively, and in their own way, topics they've nurtured an interest in for a long time.

"Instead of investing in an apartment, I'm investing in a backpack," said Fleming, who will travel in South America studying traditional uses of plants by native cultures.

Focusing specifically on medicinal plants, he plans to travel in Ecuador, Bolivia and Columbia to create an extensive, annotated list of the plants and their uses.

"I want to learn more about Latin American cultures by actually living with different native peoples," said Fleming. "My generation is one of the last who will be able to learn from the folk traditions they practice before this knowledge disappears."

Several off-campus study experiences - a Tropical Ecology course in Ecuador through the Kentucky Institute for International Studies program, a botanical inventory in Harlan County, Ky. last summer and a recent short term course in Mexico - helped Fleming decide to focus on ethnobotany.

"I had opportunities to study how people used native plants," said Fleming, "but in Ecuador and Mexico I was especially fascinated by all of the different plants and animal parts being sold in the marketplaces for health and spiritual reasons."

He also is confident that working for three years as a teaching assistant for biology professor Ralph Thompson and doing botanical research with him full-time during the summers, has given him the scientific knowledge and skills he needs to make the project a success.

Cox, meanwhile, will focus on broadening his knowledge of Irish music and dance, his family's cultural heritage.

"My family started performing and playing Irish music about 25 years ago," said Cox. "When I was 13 I learned to dance and began performing with them, and a few years later I got serious about playing the music, too." Cox will travel throughout Ireland and parts of Scotland, learning how to make the tin whistle, blackwood flute and Uilleann pipes (Irish bagpipes) from master makers. In addition he will explore the cultural significance of the music, by attending concerts, competitions and informal sessions in pubs and homes.

Eric Cox

"The waiting list for an instrument from the best makers can be up to eight years," said Cox. "If I can develop the skill, I want to make and repair instruments and record as much music as I can."

In true folk tradition, he also wants to pass along what he learns.

"I learned about Irish music because somebody took the time to show me, and I feel a responsibility to do the same," Cox said.

Cox credits a three-year Ballard - McConnell -Willis Scholarship from the Math Department with making it possible for him to combine the study of mathematics with music.

"The first year I bought a computer with my award, my junior year it funded a semester at the National University of Ireland and my senior year I used the scholarship for a short term field study in Australia," said Cox.

The Watson Foundation is a charitable trust founded in 1961 by the widow of Thomas J. Watson Sr., to honor her husband, the founder of IBM. In 1968, their children established the fellowship program in recognition of their parents' long-standing interest in education and world affairs.

Cox and Fleming are among 17 Berea College students to receive Watson Fellowships since 1988, when the College first became involved in the program.