Two seniors offered Fulbright awards

	Kyle Carey		Katie Lasky

Kyle Carey and Katie Lasky, seniors at Skidmore, have been offered Fulbright awards for post-graduate study in other countries.

Carey, who hails from North Sandwich, N.H., will go to Cape Breton, Canada, in the fall for a research project she has titled ?The Ceilidh Market: Traditional Gaelic Practice in Contemporary Cape Breton.? According to Carey, ?Ceilidh? (pronounced ?KAY-lee?) refers to an evening gathering, usually in a private home, where traditional dance, music, or storytelling provide entertainment. From the beginning of the 1700s to the first half of the 20th century, the house ceilidh helped preserve the heritage of the Cape Breton Gaels, who came to Canada from the Scottish highlands.

In recent years, Carey notes, the tradition of the ceilidh has changed, most obviously by moving from private homes to concert halls, in part due to growing interest by tourists. Carey hopes to learn more about the scope and role of these modern-day ?ceilidhs,? their evolution in recent decades, and the impact of tourism on their continued vitality. In addition, she will take two courses at Cape Breton University and undertake independent research on the history of the region.

Carey learned that she received the grant while taking a fiddle lesson, a setting she called ?fitting? for such an announcement. Although she has heard ?the people there are all so talented that they are almost bored with the fiddle,? her goal was to feel comfortable about her playing so that she could participate in a ceilidh if asked.

She also has studied Scotch Gaelic over the past year, organized a number of Celtic music sessions while at Skidmore, and completed a senior thesis on Irish author Tomas O?Crohan.

Carey came to Skidmore with musical talent and Celtic interests. Both have been strengthened by her experiences at the College. She first visited Ireland in January 2006 in a travel seminar led by Jim Kennelly, associate professor of management and business. Later that year, she participated in a program sponsored by Sacred Heart University at its Ireland satellite campus in County Kerry, where she learned the language, played music, and studied the Kerry ballad. After completing her academic work she spent the summer on the Blasket Islands off the southwest coast of Ireland. It was an experience that informed the research for her senior thesis on Blasket Island literature.

An English major and music minor, Carey started fiddle lessons two years ago, traveling weekly to Bennington, Vt., to study with John Kirk. She enrolled in a string ensemble there and met regularly with the group. Music lessons, school work, and event organization are just part of her life?she has also worked part-time at Celtic Treasures in downtown Saratoga Springs, and had a weekend gig volunteering at Caffe Lena, Saratoga?s famed coffeehouse.

Her Fulbright goal is to write an article for publication in an ethnomusicology or folklore journal, and to learn the Cape Breton style of fiddle. Ultimately she hopes to complete a significant research project that incorporates a comparative examination of Gaelic communities across the globe, the common cultural practices that unite them, and the geography and history that makes each unique.

Katie Lasky of Cobleskill, N.Y., is a double major in education studies and German whose Fulbright is designated for a teacher?s assistant in Austria.

Lasky spent the fall semester of her junior year in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, as an intern in a trilingual independent Grundschule. She was an assistant for two teachers, helped individual students with their work, and taught small-group lessons.

The semester in Germany was ?the most influential experience of my life,? Lasky said. ?Incorporating my language skills with my mother tongue to share my native language was simply fascinating. I have aspired to be a teacher since I was in elementary school, and I have had a great passion for German since I first began learning it in fifth grade.?

Because of her education major, Lasky had to plan carefully for her junior semester abroad. ?I knew what I wanted to do early on,? she explained. ?Not many education studies majors go abroad during junior year because of Junior Block??the courses required to prepare for student teaching, and the student teaching itself. She began to take junior-level courses early in her Skidmore career and completed her student teacher requirement during the first semester of her senior year.

Lasky?s other teaching experiences included team-teaching a book group for middle school students as part of the Junior Great Books program, and tutoring fellow Skidmore students in beginning and business German. Although she will have New York State certification as an elementary-school teacher when she graduates from Skidmore, Lasky says she hopes to earn certification as German teacher of students in grades 7 through 9.

Although Skidmore was not Lasky?s first choice for college (it was a little too close to her hometown), she acknowledged, ?I?ve had so many opportunities here. In retrospect, I couldn?t imagine any other college experience than what I received at Skidmore.?

Click here for a complete list of Skidmore?s 2007-2008 merit scholarship nominees, finalists, and winners.