Written by Hope Zionts ’26
Emma Schaefer ’23 is currently exploring the world on her Watson journey, Listening at Dawn: Music That Heals the Planet, and is returning to the United States at the end of July. I reached out to ask about her Watson year and what has surprised her most.
Reflecting on her Watson journey, Emma shares that the “year really allows you to use the world as your classroom,” through this global learning environment, she is enabled to employ both a zoomed-out lens as well as a zoomed-in perspective. Schaefer shares that when “viewing things from a zoomed-out lens there’s so much more potential to connect things that might not otherwise be visible.” She connected this to what she has learned about and valued in finding community in the places she’s been.
“I think community is something that has been so integral to the many different environments that I found myself in, and how while community might look really different, it might be in the form of a community of musicians who get together every day and perform, or it might be a family environment where people are living together in an intergenerational family like I experienced with my host family in Nepal, or it might be a school community, or even like a pub in the middle of a town.” Emma Schaefer
Through her involvement in a range of communities, she has been able “to see how, while these communities might be in different contexts and in different cultures, there are some key elements to each, to all the communities.”
“The Watson allows you to explore something in so many different places, it really enables you then to recognize the similarities as well in all of those places.”
In addition to the larger connections made, Schaefer shared a term she learned at a presentation in Nepal, a perspective called a “toad’s-eye view” which refers “to community or local level perspectives.” The Watson allows Emma to have this toad’s-eye view, as she is able “to live in a place…and ground [herself] in community there and get to learn from the locals and learn about what it’s like to live there…to have grown up there, and to imagine the future there.”
Along with learning about and living in different communities, Emma says “another really important element to [her] Watson year has just been learning how to lean into challenge.” From the big things to the small, Emma has “been really enjoying just trying new things and not letting fear get in the way as much.” Through facing these challenges, she has been able “to embrace what makes me me in that way” which she says, “has been very empowering.”
Above: Some of the incredible women Emma got to organize a benefit concert with for a local environmental organization called Friends of Creation near Nairobi, Kenya.
Left: With members of Kibera Creative Arts in Nairobi, a music and arts organization Emma connected and made music with throughout her time in Kenya.
Emma also shared the ways her Watson journey has impacted her identity and view of herself.
“I’m so glad that the Watson year is really enabling me to break out of old narratives of myself and see myself in new and ever-expanding ways.”
Through her reflection for this post, Emma realized that “the Watson year really allows you and leads you to live multiple lifetimes in one year.”
From changing perspectives to thriving in community and shaping her identity through leaning into challenge, Emma Schaefer’s Watson journey is far from easy to summarize, but full of so much life.
Learn more by visiting the Watson Fellowship website and the Global Fellowships and Awards overview page. Then schedule an advising meeting with Ann Landstrom, Assistant Dean and Director of Global Fellowships and Awards, through Handshake.
Photos submitted by Emma Schaefer
Above: Emma performing at COP28 in Dubai on the Climate Live stage (an organization supporting musicians to promote climate action and to help create more dialogue surrounding climate-related issues).
