Derek Law, a December 2000 Berea College graduate, has been awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for independent student and travel abroad.

The $22,000 fellowship will allow Law to spend a year studying a topic of his own choosing, beginning in June. The fellowship is one of 60 awarded to students at 40 of America's top liberal arts colleges. Law received the only fellowship awarded to a student at a Kentucky college. Winners are selected on the basis of character, leadership potential, willingness to immerse him or herself in new cultures and personal significance of the project proposed.

Law, from Harrodsburg, Ky., will spend his fellowship year studying the connection between internal spirituality and labor in the context of the garden environment. To study this relationship, Law will travel to a variety of Christian, Hindu and Buddhist monastic communities in England, Belgium, France, India and Japan, where he will live and participate in both the labor required to maintain each monastery and its gardens as well as the contemplative techniques used by the community.

Following his year of independent study, Law, who majored in agriculture and natural resources with an emphasis is sustainable systems at Berea, plans to attend graduate school, but at present is undecided about the area of study he will pursue.

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' longstanding interest in education and world affairs.

Law is the 19th Berea College student to receive a Watson Fellowship since 1988, when the College first became involved in the program.