Going to Patagonia: North Kingstown Student Wins Fellowship

NORTH KINGSTOWN, RI—A North Kingstown resident is one of just four college students statewide to receive fellowships for international travel from the Michael P. Metcalf Memorial Fund at the Rhode Island Foundation.

Nicholas Tierney received $7,000 to spend two months traveling through the Patagonia region of Chile through a program supported by the National Outdoor Leadership School.

The fellowships enable students to broaden their perspectives and enhance personal growth through international travel, internships and public service programs. Tierney was selected based on the clarity of his application and his thoughtfulness, creativity, motivation, self-direction, initiative and financial need.

“An adventure through Patagonia is not simply a satisfaction of my wanderlust, it is a training experience aimed at preparing me for future work in alleviating poverty in Latin America,” Tierney said. “I seek a Peace Corps term, and learning to survive and make do with the bare essentials is a practice I will have to master for the future.”

The University of Rhode Island global and environmental health studies major will spend most of the time training, sea kayaking, backpacking and mountaineering.

“Surviving in the wilderness will teach me the wonders of simplicity. As I hope to one day work within a non-governmental organization, I know that accuracy and success can only come from understanding the needs of the community. This means preparing for an experience living within poverty,” he said.

The North Kingstown High School graduate will end his trip with a week-long, independent, student-led trek through Patagonia.

“This will test the limits of my will, and as I look to enact serious social change through sustainable development initiatives, an understanding of these limits will better prepare me for the successful implementation of my skills in development,” he said.

The other Metcalf Fellowship recipients are Margaret-Amelia Crook of Westerly, who will work in the Wildlife Cat Sanctuary Program in South Africa; Joshua Jaspers of Warwick, who will do an internship in the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); and Ryan Curtis of Coventry, who will spend six weeks in Peru volunteering at an orphanage and doing jungle conservation work. Curtis also received support from the Foundation’s Christine T. Grinavic Adventurer's Fund, which honors the memory of Grinavic, a University of Rhode Island graduate and 2001 Metcalf Fellowship winner who was lost at sea in 2007.

Over the years, the Metcalf Fund has enabled more than 100 students to pursue personal enrichment and public service in locations ranging from Appalachia to Zaire. Past recipients have visited landmarks of Western historical and political thought in Europe, done a medical internship in Tanzania and volunteered at a Costa Rican orphanage. The Foundation will begin taking applications the next round of Metcalf Fellowships in November.

Metcalf was chairman and publisher of The Providence Journal at the time of his death in a 1987 bicycling accident. His widow Charlotte and the Journal company created the Metcalf Fund in his memory in 1989.

“I wanted to create an opportunity that was a departure from the usual scholarship. I thought of making wonderful experiences – transforming experiences – happen for others,” said Charlotte about the Metcalf Fund’s mission.

The Rhode Island Foundation is the largest and most comprehensive funder of nonprofit organizations in Rhode Island. In 2015, the Foundation awarded $41.5 million in grants to organizations addressing the state’s most pressing issues and needs of diverse communities. Through leadership, fundraising and grantmaking activities, often in partnership with individuals and organizations, the Foundation is helping Rhode Island reach its true potential. For more information, visit rifoundation.org.