Seniors Amanda Harrow of Hopkinton, Mass., and Andrew Stowe of Wallingford, Conn., received 2006 Thomas J. Watson Fellowships, $25,000 grants supporting a year of independent research abroad.

Harrow, the biological child of a couple who has supported 24 foster children over the years, will research child protection practices in New Zealand, where she will look at the influence of the Maori culture on family counseling; in Peru, for the role of nongovernmental organizations; in Uganda, for the impacts of religious organizations and AIDS; and in Sweden, for the correlation between the state welfare system and low rates of child abuse.

Harrow was one of two recipients of Bates’ 2006 William Stringfellow Award in Justice and Peace, and led the “alternative Short Term” program described on page 8.

Stowe will follow the 24,000-mile global migration of the arctic tern between northern Canada and Antarctica, hoping to expand scientific knowledge of the species and examine how it is affected by various national environmental policies. “The length and the duration of that migration is absolutely mind boggling,” says Stowe.

He and Harrow are among 50 students across the country to receive a Watson this year.