Bowdoin junior Kiersten King, of Colorado Springs, Colo., has won a Beinecke scholarship to support her aspirations to become an archaeologist of the ancient Mediterranean world. The Beinecke Scholarship Program is designed “to encourage and enable highly motivated students to pursue…a graduate course of study in the arts, humanities and social sciences.” Each year, only 20 students from across the country with financial need and exceptional academic promise receive this award. King recently answered questions about her scholarship while in Rome, where she studied abroad this semester.
Bowdoin Daily Sun: Why did you apply for the Beinecke?
Kiersten King ’14: I heard about the Beinecke in an email sent out by Cindy Stocks [director of Student Fellowships and Research] at the end of the fall semester. I’ve know since before I came to Bowdoin that I wanted to attend grad school for archaeology, and as a student on a great deal of financial aid at Bowdoin, I knew that I would need as much outside monetary support for grad school as possible. The Beinecke seemed like the perfect fit for me because it is aimed specifically at those who wish to pursue studies in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
BDS: How will the Beinecke be most helpful to you?
KK: The scholarship money that the Beinecke provides ($4,000 upon entering grad school and $30,000 while attending grad school), as well as the prestige of the award will be extremely helpful in not only getting into a good graduate program for archaeology, but also in helping to cover expenses.
BDS: What are your future plans?
KK: I plan to study Mediterranean Archaeology in graduate school and then to become a professor at an American university and conduct archaeological excavations during the summers.
BDS: What experiences at Bowdoin have been most influential on your career decision?
KK: I came to Bowdoin already knowing that I wanted to double major in Classical Archaeology and Anthropology, but my interest in both has only grown during my three years at Bowdoin. My professors, particularly Prof. Higginbotham, Prof. MacEachern, and Prof. Shaw have been especially supportive of me during my time at Bowdoin, and I’d say that their example has been the most influential factor on my decision to pursue a graduate degree in archaeology.
BDS: What are you doing on your study abroad trip?
KK: This spring I studied abroad at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, where I took courses in Latin literature, ancient Roman history and archaeology, and Renaissance and Baroque Art History. The courses in my program were specifically designed to incorporate the city of Rome and its monuments and so the program includes frequent site visits, museum tours and lectures, and two one-week field trips to Sicily and Campania. The structure of my program made it very time-consuming so I didn’t get to travel as much outside of class, but I got to know the city of Rome and its history from the Romans through the Renaissance and into the Fascist period.
