The $22,000 fellowships will allow each student to spend a year exploring a topic of their choosing, beginning in July. Morgan and Hutchinson received two of 60 fellowships awarded nation-wide to students at 41 of America's top private liberal arts colleges and universities. Winners are selected on the basis of character, leadership potential, willingness to immerse him or her self in new cultures and personal significance of the project proposed.

Morgan, of Cincinnati, will combine her interests in quilting and creative writing, which she views as related forms of narrative, in her year-long project. Traveling in Russia, England, Wales and Canada, she first will study traditional and contemporary quilting techniques and interview quilters in those countries, keeping a journal of her experiences. Afterward, she plans to create a fictional story cycle about quilting based on her journal writings.

Hutchinson, who grew up in Montana and Maine and currently lives in Berea, will use the award to study vernacular architecture in central Asia. Exploring local architecture in its cultural context, she also will learn to construct a variety of structures, including the felt "yurt" used by nomads in Mongolia; several styles of rural dwellings in rural China, and a variety of bamboo structures found in southern Laos.

Following their year of independent study, both women plan to attend graduate school.

Morgan plans to pursue a degree in creative writing and Hutchinson will pursue studies in Historic Preservation.

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.

Morgan and Hutchinson are among the 21 Berea College students to receive Watson Fellowships since 1988, when the College first became involved in the program.