April 26, 2012
The Bristol Fellowship, established in honor of William J. Bristol Jr. ’17, in 1996, gives a senior recipient $22,000 to travel outside the US and pursue an area of interest. This year’s recipient is Denise Ghartey ’12. Her project “Nowhere and Everywhere: A Cross Cultural Exploration of How Multicultural Young People Explore Their Identities” is exactly what it sounds like. She plans to understand how youth from different ethnic background develop and identify themselves as individuals. She intends to focus on those whose ethnicities do not confine them to one specific ethnicity.
“Many experience the ironic, confusing and frustrating feelings of belonging ‘nowhere and everywhere’ simultaneously.” said Ghartey in her proposal.
The inspiration for Ghartey’s project came from time studying abroad in Ghana. Ghartey’s father is from Ghana while her mother is French Canadian. When she returned, Ghartey said she experienced an identity crisis.
“[I was] trying to figure out where I belonged in this whole cultural debate. I did not have a quintessential African American experience since I grew up with my white mother and I was not able to fully claim my African heritage either. I wanted to discover how young people around the world were creating spaces for themselves in these multicultural communities where they may ever be completely accepted,” Ghartey said.
Ghartey credits the professors she has had at Hamilton as well as her mentor at Brown University where she spent a summer as a Mellon Initiative Scholar at the Leadership Alliance. She plans to do similar research with her Bristol Scholarship which will allow her to take her pursuit outside of the United States, however.
After her year exploring how multicultural youth grow and discover who they are, she plans to continue her education in Africana Studies or Philosophy. At Hamilton, Ghartey is an Africana Studies major and a Philosophy minor. Whichever area Ghartey decides to pursue, she knows it will lead to a career in youth development.
“I will continue working in youth centers and community programs because that is what I grew up with, and I know how important it is. If there were not people and mentors and teammates to support me growing up, I don’t know where I would have found the confidence to do what I have done in my past four years at Hamilton.”