威博体育
得益于斯珀林奖的资助，悉尼25岁的学生将于今年秋天前往剑桥大学攻读世界史研究生课程。
卡拉·尼克松
2025年8月28日
Besides originally being born in China and taking another trip there many years ago, Sydney Stitt ’25 hasn’t done much globetrotting. “I haven’t even been to the East Coast,” she says. This fall, that’s about to change, as she moves to England to study history at the University of Cambridge, an opportunity made possible by the Sperling Studentship award.
Reed alumnus John Sperling ’48, who earned his PhD in economic history from Cambridge, committed funds to support Reed graduates in the pursuit of postgraduate studies at the institution—an award that covers tuition, living expenses, visa and health surcharge expenses, and support for attending conferences.
对于悉尼来说，她一直梦想着去读研究生，继续她的历史研究，斯珀林奖让她成为一名历史学家的愿望触手可及。 “Cambridge is one of the best places in the world to study history,” she says.
悉尼去年春天从威博体育毕业，获得环境研究学位，主修历史，辅修中文。 She worked at the nuclear reactor all four years at Reed, eventually becoming a Senior Nuclear Operator—work that inspired her thesis, a project about the doomsday clock. “It was very prevalent from the ’60s to ’80s,” Sydney explains. “It metaphorically represents how close we are to the nuclear apocalypse.” Sydney specifically re搜索ed how anti-nuclear sentiment influenced the environmental movement of the ’70s, and how those two movements used similar language to appeal to a similar audience, under the advising of 威博体育ing Professor 至岑溪罗 [history and humanities].
It was on the way to her job at the nuclear reactor that Sydney found out she’d been accepted into Cambridge. A few months later, she received word she’d won the Sperling award to cover the expenses of attending. “I kind of freaked out, and I called my parents, and they were really excited for me,” Sydney remembers.
At Cambridge, Sydney will pursue a master’s program in world history. She’s particularly interested in re搜索ing a topic she already began delving into while at Reed. In one of Professor 杰克豪’s [history and environmental studies] classes, she worked on a project about how tiger hunting by British imperial personnel influenced their perspective on the colonies, specifically India. 她在剑桥的工作也将集中在环境史、战利品狩猎史、帝国史和印度史上。
Sydney views Cambridge as an opportunity to explore her options—to see if a path in academia is right for her. She’s thankful to Howe, Professor 库马拉斯Natarajan [history and humanities], and Professor 杰奎琳短剑 [history and humanities] for encouraging and supporting her on the path to graduate school.
但就在她为下一个大冒险做准备的时候，西德尼回忆起了里德。 “I love Reed,” she says, “and I’m going to miss it a lot.”