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Emma Schaefer `23, a 2023-24 Thomas J. Watson Fellow, returned to campus on Thursday, April 17 to share her Watson journey and engage with the College community through music. Schaefer held various events on campus, including 15-minute individual chats hosted by the Center for Careers, Life and Service (CLS) with students interested in applying for Watson Fellowships, a presentation of her experience and a concert titled, “Earth Songs: A Celebration of the Earth” on Sunday, April 20, where attendees were encouraged to bring a song, poem or other offerings to the Earth.
“Just getting to see people, professors, friends, coaches who supported me during my time at Grinnell and for the Watson application, and then getting to share little bits of that story with them has been so special,” Schaefer said. She also expressed gratitude to Ann Landstrom, the director of fellowship and awards, and her advisors John Garrison, Ross Haenfler and Jon Andelson.
Schaefer explored her project, “Listening at Dawn: Music That Heals the Planet,” from July 31, 2023 to July 31, 2024. Traveling to her originally proposed seven countries of the UK, Switzerland, Kenya, New Zealand, the UAE, India and Chile, she also added Nepal, Indonesia, Germany and Ireland along the way.
“I’m so grateful that my Watson was able to introduce me to people who were shaped by such different stories than I was shaped from, and to understand that that is just as real as my own experience,” she said.
Focused on the power of music as a way to gather and connect people, Schaefer described the Watson as a “series of questions,” ones she’s still trying to find the answers to. What she does know, though, is that “community is everything, we need each other,” she said. “We are shaped by the stories that we live within and the stories that we hear and the stories that we grew up hearing.”
For most of her Watson journey, Schaefer said she volunteered at festivals and organizations involved in music, climate activism, community and storytelling.
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I’m so grateful that my Watson was able to introduce me to people who were shaped by such different stories than I was shaped from, and to understand that that is just as real as my own experience.
— Emma Schaefer `23
In the UK, the first country she visited, she volunteered at the Green Gathering Festival, Just So Festival and Oxford Storytelling Festival. For Green Gathering, she was part of the traffic crew, meeting climate policy makers, activists and musicians. For Just So, a family and children’s festival, she said she played a fairy in the forest, greeting children who would come up to her and tell her their wishes, most of which were to see a unicorn.
“The whole point of the festival was to give children a magical opportunity to connect with nature,” she said. A memory she recalled fondly was when some of the children excitedly told her she granted their wish, that they had seen a unicorn at the festival. “I realized, like, my wish is coming true,” she said, referring to being a performer and sharing joy with children.
In Kenya, Schaefer met artists and musicians at Kibera Creative Arts, an organization based in Nairobi that helps youth in the community gain skills in creative and performing arts — pathways which are not always available to them.
“Kenya was, I feel like, one of the places that just really impacted me in such a heart-opening way,” Schaefer said. “Getting to see how these incredibly inspiring humans are building community in order to provide more hopeful paths to the people around them was so special.”
Her first day at Kibera Creative Arts, Schaefer wrote and recorded a song with the organizers. She said she is still connected to them because of that song.
“There were so many experiences like that throughout the Watson where maybe a song emerged from this connection with people, and then that song will always exist,” she said.
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There were so many experiences like that throughout the Watson where maybe a song emerged from this connection with people, and then that song will always exist.
— Emma Schaefer `23
In January, Schaefer gathered all the songs she wrote individually and collectively over her Watson journey and recorded them in an album called, “Dancing in the Dawn Light: With Love From Earth.” The album is available on streaming platforms and Bandcamp. Schaefer also shared some of these songs during her concert on campus.
When the album was released, Schaefer got to connect with the people she met and made music with on her Watson journey over Zoom. “It felt like my heart was back together in one piece,” she said.
While she’s still keeping her future open, Schaefer emphasized how she wants to continue her involvement in communities, building solidarity. And even though she may not pursue it full-time, “music will always be there,” she said.
“Even though it was so hard to leave places after establishing connection, and after being so grateful to be welcomed into these communities that were doing such amazing things when creating music together, [music] was such a tangible way to capture that energy and that connection and then have it forever,” Schaefer said.
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