LEWISTON – A Bates College senior from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, has received one of 50 prestigious research fellowships awarded by the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program.

Khoa Pham, a double major in economics and politics, won the $25,000 Watson Fellowship for a research proposal titled “Exploring Global Vietnamese Youth in Search of Identity.”

Pham’s Watson year, which will begin in August, will allow him to spend two months each in France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Russia, Japan and Australia, where he will live and interact with Vietnamese youth.

The Watson Fellowship is designed to identify potential leaders and challenge them in ways that foster independence, a global perspective and adaptability to new cultures. It funds research, conducted outside the formal academic environment and the recipient’s home culture, into a topic deeply important to the recipient.

Pham intends to gain a more informed sense of how the global community of Vietnamese youth relates to Vietnam, and, more importantly, develops creative ways in which its members can contribute to Vietnam’s future growth. “In the end, all this will help me understand my own identity better and become more ‘globally conscious,'” Pham said in a prepared statement.