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Pomona
College Announces 11 Winners
of Avery China Adventure Program Grants
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Eleven members of the Pomona College community – a mix of
students, alumni and faculty – have been awarded R. Stanton
Avery China Adventure Program grants, which will allow them
up to $25,000 each for up to one-year’s travel in China to
research an area of interest.
“The Avery China Adventure Program provides a great
opportunity to pursue creative projects in China and develop
close contacts with Chinese people,” said Pomona College
Professor Allan Barr, the college’s advisor for the Avery
grant. “Over the years, with the help of these grants,
Pomona students, alumni, faculty and staff have been able to
get off the beaten track and do a lot of unusual things in
China, making personal discoveries that have had a real
impact on their lives.”
Daniel Bernstein of San Jose, Calif., class of 1997,
will spend three months in China examining how the
independent documentary film industry is growing, changing
and evolving. He plans to spend the first six weeks in
Beijing meeting with filmmakers and the second six weeks in
Yunnan Province working at a recently established
documentary institute. His aim is to answer the following
question: how have the changes that China has undergone
affected filmmakers' abilities to bring their documentary
visions to fruition? Bernstein hopes to come back from China
with both a better understanding of the relationship between
documentaries and societal change, as well as some nice
footage. Bernstein is currently a graduate student at Johns
Hopkins pursuing a master’s degree in international
economics, Japan studies and environmental policy.
Documentary filmmaking is a hobby.
Charles Deck of Brooklyn, New York, class of 2003,
plans to go to China to have a “conversation in folk music.”
With the jazz training and Chinese skills he acquired at
Pomona, Deck will share his knowledge of jazz while also
learning something about Chinese folk music. He says there's
a growing interest in the nascent jazz scene in China, and
he’s hoping to provide access to jazz and learn about
Chinese music to facilitate intersections and collaborations
between the two musical forms. Deck plans to backpack in
Eastern China for one year, visiting schools, music
academies, parks and any other place where people are
willing to learn about or share music. Deck is a financial
analyst and saxophone player who is considering going to
graduate school and sees the Avery grant as an opportunity
to break out of his normal life and explore China, music and
himself.
Mark Wolfmeyer of Brookside, New Jersey, class of
2002, will travel to China for one month to hear live
performances of underground art-rock music in Beijing, and
to involve himself in that musical community. Wolfmeyer is a
musician who hopes to learn why the Chinese underground
art-rock community is thriving and inspirational. He also
hopes to experience Chinese folk music and consider the
possibility that the Beijing scene is an outgrowth of
traditional folk music.
Wolfmeyer is a high-school math teacher in New Jersey.
Professor of Biology and Molecular Biology Laura Hoopes
will examine the interaction between cranes and people
in China. She plans to visit two major nature reserves, one
near Harbin in the North and the other near JiuJiang in the
South, that preserve cranes, as well as other animals and
plants. Both of the reserves house many other human
activities (farming, fishing, reed cutting), and she plans
to talk with people to find out if they see the cranes as
valuable and interesting or as competitors and problems. She
also will bring drawings from American schools to exchange
for drawings of cranes made by Chinese schoolchildren near
the reserves. In addition, she plans to compare the
aftermath of a major fire at one reserve in 2001 with the
fire in Claremont this past year. Hoopes’ goal is to find
out how conservation impacts people’s lives and how well it
is working in China. After her trip, she plans to return to
Pomona College and incorporate some of her findings in
lessons and talks.
Additional Avery Grant from Pomona College recipients are:
Paul Kiernan of Bethesda, Maryland, class of 2004, an
avid climber who will trek into the mountains of Hengduan
Shan.
Drew Foerster of Columbia, Maryland, class of 2004,
will research the myths that animate 14 of China’s sacred
Buddhist and Daoist mountains, to which millions of Chinese
make annual pilgrimages.
Steve Miller of Riverside, Calif., class of 1998, a
foreign-student advisor at UC Riverside who will search for
the symbolic meanings behind the Chinese could art motif – a
pervasive image in Chinese art forms that transcends China’s
many ethnic and religious divisions.
Megan Purn of Seattle, Wash., class of 2000, a writer
who will explore book arts, seeking out people – artists,
traditional bookmakers and minority priests – who make
books.
Beatrice Schraa of New York City, class of 2006, will
study the different forms of embroidery still practiced as a
traditional art in China.
Physical Education Instructor (martial arts) Ty Aponte
will visit orphanages and interview families to learn
how the foster-care system established in China in 2002 is
working and how it compares to the traditional orphanages in
terms of care given to the children.
Music Instructor Phillip Young will retrace his
mother's WWII-era refugee journey into Guangdong, Guangxi
and Guizhou provinces.
The R. Stanton Avery China Adventure Program is open to
students, faculty, staff and graduates within the past seven
years of the Claremont Colleges, California Institute of the
Arts, Caltech and Occidental College with an interest in
learning more about a particular aspect of China. Projects
can be from three weeks to one year in length with a budget
up to $25,000, and can focus on almost anything related to
mainland China. Grants are not limited by academic
background or achievement, or language requirements.
The seed for the Avery Foundation Grant was planted in 1929,
when 10 Pomona College students – including R. Stanton Avery
– pooled their talents to create the Oriental Study
Expedition. Each had a particular area of interest and
scraped together sufficient funds to spend one year
traveling throughout China. The experience left a lasting
impression on them all.
Avery, who later built the multinational company now known
as Avery-Dennison, created the Avery China Adventure Program
to recognize the adventurous spirit of his original China
expedition. Administered by the International Community
Foundation, the program continues his legacy by offering
opportunity for China travel to individual aspiring
explorers.
Pomona College is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts
institutions, offering a comprehensive program in the arts,
humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Its
hallmarks include small classes, close relationships between
students and faculty, and a range of opportunities for
student research. Visit Pomona College on the web at
www.pomona.edu.
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