We are delighted to introduce the 2025 William Westerman Pathfinders, who will be travelling to North America and Asia this summer to meet and stay with Old Members while undertaking a research project along the way.
The Pathfinders Programme is made possible by the generous support of Matthew Westerman (Balliol 1983), who in recent years took over the funding of the programme in honour of his father, William A. Westerman (Balliol 1946). The original programme was established in 1955 by Bill Coolidge (Balliol 1924). For further information about the history of the programme, please see About the William Westerman Pathfinders.
William Westerman Pathfinder Award to North America
Amelia Bryan (Balliol 2021, Biology)
Amelia’s project will focus on documenting places of local history in the regions and cities she will travel to, through the medium of embroidery, creating a final piece that chronologically encapsulates her trip.
Jake Hughes (Balliol 2020, PPE)
Jake is a PPE finalist. His project will explore the workings of the US prison system, its relationship to capitalism and how it is perceived across the US. Having travelled across Hong Kong and Vietnam, he is particularly interested in the potential cultural differences across Asia and North America.
Kate Holmes (Balliol 2021, Literae Humaniores)
Kate has a passion for ballet and hopes to compare the American ballet technique and culture against her own experience learning the British style. This will involve attending shows, museum exhibitions and interviewing dancers from countries outside North America, who have been trained in other styles to understand their experience of adapting to different techniques.
Mina Yücelen (Balliol 2022, History and English)
Mina is a third-year History and English student. As part of her project, she plans to gather folktales and stories about the supernatural from the various places she will visit.
Ria Gogna (Balliol 2022, Economics and Management)
Ria’s project will take her across the American West – Texas, Arizona, California, Nevada, Idaho, and Montana – where she will explore the growing movement of first-generation farmers. She plans to work as a ranch hand on both new and intergenerational farms to understand the socio-cultural forces driving people back to the land.
Rosie Mahendra (Balliol 2022, PPE)
Since joining Balliol, Rosie has been very active in the theatre scene, having acted in various productions and serving as President of the Michael Pilch Studio. She plans to extend this interest in her project by exploring the local roots of American political theatre movements to see how they have varied and overlapped across the continent.
Sam Santhouse (Balliol 2022, Medicine)
Sam is a third-year medical student, and his project aims to study how attitudes to healthcare, particularly women’s health and insurance policy, have changed against the backdrop of the changing political and cultural landscape in America. He hopes to gain insights through conversations with American citizens who have varied, authentic, first-hand experiences.
Tobi Bretschneider (Balliol 2021, Mathematics)
For Tobi’s project, he hopes to retrace historical expeditions in the Americas – in particular, the paths of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and John Wesley Powell’s Colorado River Expedition. He plans on using film photography to document geographical and cultural changes.
Noah Saunders (Balliol 2022, PPE)
Noah is a PPE finalist. His project centres on the relationship between North America’s indigenous peoples and the majority population. In particular, he will explore the way in which issues of political representation and social interactions are managed. Through speaking with people living in a broad range of areas and with diverse life experiences, he hopes to broaden his own horizons as well as receive as many different perspectives for his project topic as possible.
Caitlin Scollin (Balliol 2022, English Language and Literature)
Caitlin is in her final year studying English Literature. During her travels this summer, she plans to visit certain landmarks of literary and artistic interest and visually document them in a book. She is particularly interested in visiting artists’ memorials and developing her own creative response to their work.
Felicity Thomas (Balliol 2021, Physics and Philosophy)
Felicity’s project is inspired by her current physics paper on atmospheres and oceans. She will explore how different communities appreciate the nature around them, and how this may differ between different eco-regions.
William Westerman Pathfinder Award to Southeast Asia
Cam Tweed (Balliol 2021, Law with Spanish Law)
Cam developed a passion for cooking during his time at Balliol and his project involves learning to cook a local vegetarian dish – either through cooking schools or from a local restaurant willing to teach – and compiling these recipes into a cookbook to pass onto family and friends.
Fódhla Dunne (Balliol 2022, History)
Fódhla plays the violin and hopes to further her understanding of Asian music and performance for her project. While she often incorporates music history in her weekly tutorial essays, she has been limited to analysing western classical music. Through her visits to Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, she hopes to explore their folk music and performance techniques to further her understanding of eastern musical practices.
George Roupas (Balliol 2020, Intellectual History)
George is an MSt student in Intellectual History and much of his degree involved thinking about religion’s role in shaping political thought, identities and institutions. His project will explore the connections between popular religion and politics in East and Southeast Asia. He plans to visit holy sites and landmarks, talking to those he comes across along the way, including worshippers, journalists, officials, academics, and passers-by.
Helena Marshall (Balliol 2021, Literae Humaniores)
Helena is a fourth-year Classicist. She hopes to explore the different architectural styles and landscapes of the countries she visits, collating this through different artistic mediums. Through this process, she hopes to understand the complexities and wide range of differences across neighbouring cultures and within the same cultures in both urban and rural areas.
Sophia Kapsalis (Balliol 2021, Biology)
During Sophia’s travels through Southeast Asia, she hopes to explore the question: does music still bring us together? Through visiting communities with preserved traditional music practices and comparing them to those born from individualistic listening, she plans to investigate evolving music listening practices and their impact on community and social bonding across the region.