2019 Rocks Fellowship Awardee Dominica Rollins and classmates exploring historic sites of Ancient Greece.
2018 Rocks Fellow Awardee Nicola Bomani attending a Latinx conference in Los Angeles, California.
2018 Rocks Fellowship Awardee Jacob Kordeleski using 3D imaging photogrammetry at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
The Rocks Fellowship Awardees
2020
Kimberly Osbern
Project Title: "Effects of homophobic legislation on the LGBT community in the Russian Federation."
Kimberly Osbern is a senior pursuing a double major in International Studies and French. She is also pursuing a minor in Russian. Through the Rocks Fellowship award, Kimberly had the opportunity to conduct research on the effects of homophobic legislation in the Russian Federation. Her project, the majority of it conducted in Russian, focused on researching Russian government documents and official websites in order to uncover information on the number of arrests and fines for LGBT activity both prior to and following the passage of the 2013 law banning "gay propaganda", and its overall effect on the LGBT population in Russia since that time.
Learn more about Kimberly Osbern
Alex Van Belleghem
Project Title: "Overcoming the Difficulties of Contemporary Dance."
Alex Van Belleghem is a sophmore pursuing a double major in in economics and dance. As a Francis J. and Earla E. Rocks Experiential Learning Fellowship awardee, his research project was focused on enhancing his choreographic skills as it relates to contemporary dance. In addition, he also refined his theoretical knowledge of the genre through critiques of professional contemporary dance pieces as well as reading multiple books on the subject. His project culminated in a YouTube video made from his research findings.
Learn more about Alex Van Belleghem
2019
Elizabeth Hannah
Project Title: Attendance at Second Annual Philos Project Conference “Philos Nexus”
Elizabeth Hanna is a CWRU graduate who double majored in International Studies and Middle Eastern Studies. As a Rocks Fellowship recipient, she used her award to attend the Philos Project’s second annual Philos Nexus conference in New York City in the fall of 2019. The focus of the conference was on the promotion of pluralism in the Middle East. As part of her experience attending this conference, she had the opportunity to hear from renowned experts on the Middle East and participated in workshops and networking events. She currently is pursuing her masters degree in Middle Eastern Studies at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.
Learn more about Elizabeth Hannah.
Dominica Rollins
Project Title: Attendance at the Summer Session of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece
Dominica Rollins recently graduated with a bachelor’s in classical studies with an emphasis on Greek and Latin from CWRU. As a Rocks Fellow, her project consisted of traveling to Athens, Greece to attend the summer session of the American School of Classical Studies summer session. As part of this experience, she had the opportunity to visit historical sites and engage in a study tour of Ancient Greece. She documented her experience in a PowerPoint presentation.
Learn more about Dominica Rollins.
2018
Nicola Bomani
Project Title: Journey Through Latinx Communities of the United States
As a Rocks Fellow, Nichola embarked on a journey of narrative collection and interviews within the U.S. Latino Muslim community. With a focus on the Afro-Latino and female perspectives of ‘reversión’, the Fellowship enabled Nichola to travel to Los Angeles, Houston, New York, and Columbus, Ohio to interview, as well as attend the 2018 ISNA Convention, classes of the Latino Muslim Assosciation of America, and visit the Centro Islámico, the country’s first Spanish Speaking mosque. Nichola has documented her journey at perlasdelislam.blog, which houses the narratives, photos, resources, and personal reflections that her Fellowship has generated. Nichola will publish her thesis manuscript in a U.S. based Spanish language journal, and in the future, hopes to publish a book containing narratives of reversió, also in Spanish.
Learn more about Nicola Bomani.
Jacob Kordeleski
Project Title: Experiential Training In Photogrammetry and Structured-Light Scanning Through the Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Jacob was awarded the Rocks Fellowship in order to support his exploration of using 3D imaging in the photogrammetric analysis of classical artifacts, of which he worked on as an intern at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
You can see Jacob’s work in digital preservation. He subsequently presented the findings of his project at the annual Archaeological Institute of America (AIA). His presentation was entitled “Museum Applications of Photogrammetry – Digital Preservation at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
View Jacob's 3D work of preservation.
2017
Jared Shank
Project Title: NICA Certificate IV Program Attendance
The Rocks Fellowship award helped to subsidize the cost of the NICA’s (National Institute of Circus Art in Australia) Certificate IV Program in which Jared attended.