Fellows for Peace come to Middlebury and Monterey from all walks of life and leave with skills they need to pursue their diverse professions and initiatives. Hundreds of program alumni are now working for the greater good, all across the globe.
Group photo of 2019 Fellows with Middlebury President Laurie L. Patton
Ellen Johnson, 2018 Kathryn Davis Fellow
When Ellen Johnson was seven years old, her parents took her to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site in Germany. Dachau was the first of the Nazi concentration camps opened in Germany, and Ellen’s parents explained to her what happened there in the 1930s and ’40s. She calls the experience a “foundational moment” in her life.
Jakob Lengacher, 2018 Kathryn Davis Fellow
Jakob Lengacher never planned to major in Chinese. He was interested in nuclear physics and nonproliferation when he enrolled at UMass Amherst, but then he failed his first physics exam. That same semester, Jakob took a Chinese language class for fun and aced all the assignments. It was an unexpected turn that offered a new direction.
Tony Macie, 2018 Kathryn Davis Fellow
As a U.S. Army sergeant, Tony Macie served a 15-month tour in Iraq in 2006 and 2007. After witnessing death and destruction on the front lines, his return home to Vernon, Vermont, was difficult. “I had PTSD and a really hard time coping with the transition,” said Macie.
Ben Spatz, 2018 Kathryn Davis Fellow
Ben Spatz recalls being a teenager in the 1990s and watching images on television of conflict and brutality in the Balkans, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and more. He was deeply moved by the images he saw and thought if he could document atrocities happening around the world, people would intervene. With a passion for photography, Ben decided to become a photojournalist.
Melissa Stewart, 2018 Kathryn Davis Fellow
On January 12, 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the Caribbean island nation of Haiti. The quake triggered a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented proportions, leaving more than 200,000 people dead and 1.5 million people homeless. Three months later, Melissa Stewart stood in the capital city of Port-au-Prince, surveying the damage.