Her daddy was a weaver who taught her how to quilt, but Catherine Morgan, ’02, did not realize the full cultural significance of this craft until coming to Berea. Marissa Hutchinson, ’02, grew up traveling all over the U.S. and Canada, spending summers in a Montana cabin she and her mother built, and working in construction before enrolling in Berea as an art and technology major, where her interest in architecture blossomed.

Next year, Hutchinson will explore local “vernacular” architecture in central Asia, including Mongolian yurts, Chinese rural dwellings, and Laotian bamboo structures. Morgan will study traditional and contemporary quilting techniques while traveling through Russia, England, Wales, and Canada. They are Berea’s latest two recipients of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowships, which allow students from 41 of America’s top liberal arts colleges to spend a year traveling abroad exploring topics of their choice.
Morgan, a music and English major from Cincinnati, Ohio, will combine her interests in quilting and creative writing with a goal to help keep Appalachian traditions and customs alive. In addition to interviewing and learning techniques from quilting experts in the areas she visits, she will also keep a journal of her experiences and hopes to have a manuscript of poetry after her journey is completed. “These skills are part of a much larger culture,” Morgan explains. “I think that visiting people of these areas and learning about their way of life will really inform my writing.”

Hutchinson’s travels to Japan and Thailand as a Berea student sparked her passion for “the connection among materials, place and lifestyle that has evolved into vernacular architecture,” she says. “In our modern world, people are losing touch with what they’re living in.” She plans to study local architecture, and to work on projects alongside native people, learning building traditions through experiencing them firsthand, as they have been passed down throughout architecture’s history.

The Watson Foundation is a charitable trust founded by Mrs. Thomas J. Watson, Sr., to honor her late husband, the founder of IBM.

Hodge was featured at the Student Service Awards in May, playing with two bands he helped found: the Berea College Bluegrass Ensemble and One Blood. The non-traditional student has a family tradition of Appalachian folk music. “My dad played banjo in bluegrass jam sessions, and my mom was always singing good old country music,” Hodge recalls. “I soaked it up because it was such a big part of our daily life.”

Hodge plays guitar, string bass, dulcimer, banjo, harmonica, and fiddle, as well as singing and writing music. Surprisingly, he didn’t begin playing until he was nearly 14 years old, on a $5 guitar his grandfather bought at a flea market.
Most recently, Hodge has benefited from his work with Dr. Stephen Bolster and the Berea College Concert Choir. “Dr. Bolster’s method of conducting is amazing,” Hodge says. “He draws the most out of a variety of musical experiences. I have developed a finer tuned ear working with him.” Currently, Hodge is drawing on his varied
experiences to arrange an orchestra piece that blends folk with classical music, and compose a piece for the Phelps Stokes chimes.

The cash award he received as the Foley recipient will be helpful, but to Hodge, the important thing is communicating through music. “I respect the power of music,” he concludes. “You don’t have to have expensive instruments to make good music—music should be accessible to everyone. What’s important to me is taking my $70 guitar and making the best music I can.”