Department of English

(Photo above) Gabriela Walsh poses in front of her poster at the 2018 Wentworth Spring poster presentation in Randall Library. She showcased her trip around France where Gabriela followed in the footsteps of punk rock musician Patti Smith, who herself followed in French poet Arthur Rimbaud's footsteps. - Photo by Hanna Wickes
(Photo above) Gabriela Walsh poses in front of her poster at the 2018 Wentworth Spring poster presentation in Randall Library. She showcased her trip around France where Gabriela followed in the footsteps of punk rock musician Patti Smith, who herself followed in French poet Arthur Rimbaud's footsteps. - Photo by Hanna Wickes

Wentworth Student Travel Fellowship

Important Dates

Application Informational Meeting: Wednesday 17 October 2018, 5–6 pm, Morton 106

Wentworth Fellowship Application Deadline: 16 November 2018

Recipients Announced: 30 November 2018

Fall Wentworth Fellowship Poster Presentations: Wednesday 7 November, 3–5 pm, Sherman Hayes Gallery, Randall Library

Contact Information: Direct all questions about the Wentworth Fellowship to committee chair Lee Schweninger, schweningerl@uncw.edu. 

Looking for an idea? Here's where our previous fellows have gone.

About the Wentworth Fellowship

The Wentworth Fellowship, a gift of Mr. Charles F. Green III, was established in 2001 to enable a select number of students to travel to sites, in America or abroad, associated with literary authors and texts.

Kyle Stanley followed in the footsteps of beat writer Jack Kerouac, going to San Francisco and Yosemite National Park for his 2016 Wentworth Fellowship. - Photo by Jane MacLennan

Kyle Stanley (photo at right) Kyle Stanley followed in the footsteps of beat writer Jack Kerouac, going to San Francisco and Yosemite National Park for his 2016 Wentworth Fellowship.
- Photo by Jane MacClennan

Each year, students work with faculty sponsors to submit applications detailing journeys inspired by and connected with a specific text, author, or movement in an effort to explore the relationship of artistic production to geographic space. Most of these trips will take place during holiday break, spring break, or over the summer and must be completed prior to the student's graduation. In the past, Wentworth Fellows have travelled to places as diverse as Beijing, Moscow, Oxford, Berlin, Prince Edward Island, and Providence, Rhode Island. There are no restrictions (except for those put in place by the State Department) on where a student can go on a Wentworth Fellowship.

To this end, the money awarded by the Wentworth Fellowships is intended to cover or help cover the cost of travel and lodging for domestic and international travel. The fellowships can be anywhere between $750 and $1,500, depending on the destination. It is the goal of the committee to award fellowships to as many deserving applications as possible.

After the trip is completed, Wentworth fellows are required to write an essay reviewing the journey from a critical and personal perspective, addressing such questions as: How did my experience of this place alter my personal and critical understanding of an author's work? and How did this trip change the way I read other cultural and literary texts? Fellows are also expected to create a poster (see below for more information on the poster and essay projects) that will be a part of a public presentation by returning fellows.

How To Apply

Once you've come up with an idea for a project, download the application below and establish contact with an English department faculty member willing to serve as your mentor. Once you've completed the application, submit it to your mentor who will in turn finalize and submit the document to the Wentworth committee.
Application in Microsoft Word (.docx) Format

Dr. Nicholas Laudadio chats with Jessica Knight about her trip to Italy, looking into Laura Schenone's I've Won, What Next?

So now that you've won your fellowship, what do you do next?

  1. Register for a one-credit DIS with your faculty advisor (as with everything else on this list, if you have questions, schedule an appointment with your advisor to go over the details).
  2. If you are traveling abroad, make sure your passport is current. If you don't have a passport, you need to begin the process of applying for one immediately. See the UNCW Passport Acceptance Agency for more information.
  3. Schedule travel (holiday break/spring break/summer) and begin to shop for tickets online or with a travel agent. You will want to shop around for the best deal on tickets. Consider Web sites like Orbitz, Travelocity, Cheaptickets, BookingBuddy, etc.
  4. Start planning your itinerary: Decide where you want to go and how long you will stay there before moving on; look online and read about others who have traveled where you are going; get maps, guide books, etc. Make sure that the sights you hope to see are open on the dates you intend to travel.
  5. Start considering other incidentals (these will become significantly less incidental as you travel): good socks, comfortable shoes, and travel clothes. Here is a packing list that can be very helpful. (opens as PDF)
  6. In order to make the Wentworth Fellowships available to as many students as possible, we award students an amount we feel carries the bulk of a trip's financial demands. We understand that students may need to supplement this amount on their own; if you have further concerns, please talk to your faculty advisor (or friends who have travelled) about ways to save money.
  7. Don't forget to take a camera and a journal along with you on your journeys (as well as appropriate reading materials). We have a Wentworth flickr page and will be asking you to send some of your best photos along, so keep good records. Also, make sure you keep a detailed journal throughout your trip; this will not only help you write your essay upon your return, it will also, no doubt, acquire some sentimental significance in the long run.
  8. The Wentworth funds awarded by the committee go through the department and on to financial aid where they finally end up in your student account, generally in one lump sum.
  9. All students are required to get travel insurance from the Office of International Programs. See Karen Doniere in the English department office for more information on insurance.

On Your Return

Once you return from your journey, it's time to think about how you will present it to others. The two documents you need to produce to satisfy the requirements of the fellowship are a poster and an essay. The poster will be displayed in the library for a week after the initial poster presentation and will be kept and displayed by the English Department after that. You will need to submit your final Wentworth essay to your faculty mentor in order to receive full credit for your DIS.

The Poster

Basically, the poster is one large (maximum size: 46"w X 40"h) PowerPoint slide that showcases some well-chosen photos from your trip and intersperses them with text. Posters should be in landscape orientation. There are examples up of previous Wentworth posters in classrooms throughout Morton Hall; please browse for some ideas. While the poster's design is ultimately up to you, here are some things that MUST be on your poster.

  1. Your name, followed by "Wentworth Fellow." Ex: Paul Lynde, Wentworth Fellow
  2. Your project's full title. Ex: "Charles Dickens' London."
  3. The UNCW logo
  4. Travel dates
  5. Photos from your trip (try to get pictures of relevant moments/places in your trip, not just snapshots with friends, flora, and fauna).
  6. Information about where you travelled, who/what you were exploring, and some brief conclusions about the connections you found between place and text, travelling and reading.

Remember, you will only get to stand next to your poster and explain your project for a few hours; the poster will remain up in the library and in classrooms for years. Take your time and make it good, so it can speak for itself.

Once you finish designing your poster, you need to send it to CSURF to have it printed in time for the presentation (they need at least two full days' notice to print posters. It is your responsibility to make sure this gets done). For CSURF's guidelines (which you MUST read), go here: https://www.uncw.edu/csurf/printing.html

This video on how to create your poster may be useful, also.

The Essay

The essay you write to satisfy your DIS credit should be approximately 1,000 words, describing your trip in detail. In this you need to make clear, not just the outline of your journey, but what brought you there and how being there changed how you understand your particular author/text. Be specific and cite details from both text and trip. Make sure your faculty mentor approves your essay before final submission.

The Map

In order to make sure your project is on the map, you need to send us some basic information (send all materials to the committee chair, Dr. Lee Schweninger, schweningerl@uncw.edu):

  • student name and project title
  • date of travel
  • one-paragraph project abstract/description
  • 3-7 photos from your travels, modestly sized (approximately 5" x 7", 72 dpi, jpg format) to be hosted on the Wentworth flickr page
  • your final essay and poster in .pdf format

Submitting these materials are part of the expectations that accompany the fellowship itself.

Contact Information:
Direct all questions about the Wentworth Fellowship to committee chair:

Lee Schweninger
Professor
Morton Hall 128
962-3539
schweningerl@uncw.edu