COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. -- Driven by the passion to learn how poetry empowers Arab women, Kelsey Threatte of Lovettsville, Va., is one of 40 students in the country to win a highly competitive Thomas J.Watson Fellowship for a year of independent exploration and travel outside the United States.

Her creative research project, "Voice and Veil: The Power and Impact of Arab Women Poets on Society," will take her to the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco to examine how Arab women acquire a voice in shaping their communities socially and politically.

"Poetry is the heartbeat of the Arab world, a unique way of entering a realm of new understanding and connection where the expression of political values and personal beliefs cannot be silences by society or the government," she said.

Fifty liberal arts schools are designated by the Foundation to nominate eligible seniors for the awards, and 177 finalists were nominated by their schools.

The awards are not just for travel, explains Watson Fellowship Program Director, Cleveland Johnson, but are "long-term investments in people. . . We look for persons likely to lead or innovate in the future and give them extraordinary independence to pursue their interests outside of traditional academic structures." He called the Fellows "passionate learners, creative thinkers and motivated self-starters who are encouraged to dream big but demonstrate feasible strategies for achieving their fellowship goals." Each Fellow receives $28,000 for the year of travel, and global experiential learning.

Kelsey's passion for learning about a culture so different from her own developed during her Ursinus experiences in a senior seiminar class, during an independent research fellowship and through her honors research, as she increasingly saw Arabic poetry "as a window into a world we know far too little." As a Watson Fellow she will spend time in both northern Africa and the Middle East, visiting universities with women's studies departments, women's rights groups and speaking with leading female political and community leaders. She will also spend time in the neighborhoods, "where the true heart of Arabic poetry beats," including tea shops, markets mosques, and poetry slams.

Threatte grew up in rural Virginia, and said she learned compassion and patience helping to care for members of her community with special needs, and gained a desire for social justice by encountering those who did not understand them. She found release in writing poetry, prose and short stories, and was inspired by the calls to peace and justice found in the music of her father's folk records.

At Ursinus she studied Arabic, established the Arabic Language and culture club, and was on the board of the Muslim Student Association. Her belief in the peaceful resolution of conflict led to creating an Ursinus chapter of STAND, a student-run anti-genocide coalition with a focus on Darfur. She spent a semester at the American University in Cairo as an independent study abroad experience, and traveled to Jordan, Syria and Israel, a journey, she said, "where my whole world split open." And she discovered the place of poetry in the Arab world. Her Summer Fellows project at Ursinus looked at poetry as a form of political expression in the Arab World.

"Talking to these women poets will empower me discover what their ambitions are, what their goals are, what they have faced, what message they wish to convey, and how they believe they are making an impact," she wrote in her proposal. "It is the intent and spirit of these poets that is the true indicator of change in their communities."