Holy Cross Senior Earns Prestigious National Award

Holy Cross senior Eric Studt has been awarded a prestigious traveling fellowship from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation to spend a year after graduation traveling outside the United States. Studt, a philosophy major from Gardner, Mass., will use his Watson fellowship to pursue his interest in liturgical music in Latin America. The title of his project is 'Latin American Liturgical Music: Let the Dance Begin'.

Beginning in July, he will travel to Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Colombia to carry out his research. Studt plans to attend local religious services and concerts in an effort to come to a deeper appreciation of Latin American culture as a synthesis of European and indigenous influences.

An avid organist, Studt has served as a church organist and choir director in several local parishes, including St. Bernard's Church in Worcester. He currently studies organ with Ian Watson, director of music at the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Worcester. While in France during his junior year abroad, Studt studied with Jean-Pierre Leguay, organist of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, France. It was while he was in France that Studt first became aware of immense cultural differences in the use of music in worship services.

A member of the College's highly selective Honors Program, Studt is completing his thesis on the symbolic nature of liturgical music from a philosophical perspective.

The Watson Fellowship is an unusual opportunity afforded to 50 students each year chosen from among four nominees from each of 50 preeminent liberal arts colleges and small universities. Nearly 1,000 students applied for the awards this year. It is intended to provide selected students with the opportunity to spend a year away, learning about the wider world and pursuing a project that is of passionate interest. Fellows are awarded $22,000 for their year of travel and study, which must be conducted outside formal academic institutions.

Related information:

# The Watson Fellowship