Contact:  Rick Peterson, Manager of News Services, 920/832-6590
For Immediate Release				March 18, 1999

Two Lawrence University Students Awarded $22,000 Watson Fellowships 

APPLETON, WIS. -- Chinese religious pilgrimages and African influences 
on South American music and dance will be the focus of a pair of year-long
studies by two Lawrence University students awarded $22,000 Watson
Fellowships.
     Seniors Justin Ritzinger, River Falls, and Kathleen Noss, Nairobi,
Kenya, were two of the 60 fellowship recipients announced by the Providence,
R.I.-based Thomas J. Watson Foundation.  The fellowship supports a
"wanderjahr" of travel and exploration outside the U.S. on a topic proposed
by the student.  
     They were selected from more than 1,000 student nominees representing
49 of the nation's top liberal arts colleges.  Since the Watson Program was
established in 1969, Lawrence has had at least one fellowship recipient
every year but one.
     Ritzinger will spend the coming year in the Far East studying the
resurgence of Buddhist pilgrimages to Chinese holy sites.  His study will
focus on the recent construction of new temples and religious monuments at
the four great Buddhist pilgrimage mountains and how the renewal of
pilgrimages to these sites is stimulating a re-emergence of Buddhism in
China.  
     Ritzinger also will visit Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore to meet with
business and religious leaders who are supporting the new construction, many
of whom were forced to flee mainland China during the Cultural Revolution. 
     A religious studies major with a minor in Chinese language, Ritzinger
first became interested in Buddhism as a seventh grader after watching a
television program in which Bill Moyers interviewed a college professor
about world religions.
     "Buddhism was the most striking to me," said Ritzinger, who began
practicing Buddhism in high school and then converted to the eastern
religion in 1997 while on an off-campus study program in Tianjin, China.
"It sparked an interest in me both as a religion and as a field of study."
     Noss, who was born in Cameroon to American parents and lived there
until coming to the U.S. to attend Lawrence, grew up with traditional
African music and dance as part of her daily life.  While she came to
Lawrence in part to study classical piano, she's maintained a strong
interest in traditional African music.
     Her fellowship will take her to Bolivia, Peru and Haiti to study the
influences on South American and Caribbean music and dance that were brought
to those regions by African slaves.  She also will research how the new
music with its mixed Spanish influences is making the reverse trip back to
Africa and impacting modern African music.
     "I'm intrigued by the journey of music from one continent to another,
by the history of this travel and how contact with other cultures has
affected the original African music," said Noss, who is completing a
five-year double degree program with a bachelor of arts degree in English
and a bachelor of music degree with a self-designed major in
ethnomusicology. "I what to find out if performers in the Americas feel, as
many African musicians do, that traditional music and dance is in danger of
being abandoned by younger generations in their communities."
     Noss, who performs with the Lawrence Brazilian and Ghanaian percussion
ensembles Sambistas and Kinkaviwo, respectively, hopes to study, and
perform, with many of the musicians she interviews.
     "I hope through lessons with these performers, I can become a part of
the musical world in the Americas, a part of the story," said Noss.
     Ritzinger and Noss will embark on their study programs in July.  Watson
Fellows are selected on the basis of the nominee's character, academic
record, leadership potential, willingness to delve into another culture and
the personal significance of the project proposal.