A woman and the sea - The Taft School

AROUND THE
This year, three separate funds were available to help students find meaningful summer
experiences: Meg Page Fellowships, Kilbourne Arts Fellowships, and Robert K. Poole
Fellowships. As you will see, students put their resources and talents to good use.
Caring about Healthcare
When Eliza Jackson ’06 and
Christine Anderson ’06 applied
for the newly created Meg Page
Fellowship, they were intrigued
by the idea of helping at an
AIDS clinic in Albany. “But we
quickly realized that would be
impractical,” Eliza says.
Instead, Eliza’s father helped
the girls work out a program
with the Jimmy Fund, an outpatient
facility for children at the
Dana Farber Cancer Institute in
Boston, where the Jacksons already
had an apartment.
Eliza and Christine spent two weeks
playing with and reading to young cancer
patients, and they also arranged to go on
rounds with a staff psychologist to gain
some insight into the field—an interest
that came out of the adolescent psychology
course both girls took last year.
“I thought working in a cancer center
would freak me out,” says Eliza, who
would like to major in psychology in
college, “with little kids hooked up to
tubes and everything. I worried it would
be really depressing. It wasn’t, though. I
wound up really loving it. The kids were
just amazing, and people were so upbeat.
I left really wanting to help kids in
ways I never expected. It was intense,”
she adds, “but I’m really glad I did it.”
“It was definitely an experience,”
says Christine. “I had a cousin who
died of cancer, so it was really hard,
but after a day or so it was
incredible. We made a difference
in children’s lives just by
telling them that the pictures
they drew were really good
and making them smile. It was
amazing. I wouldn’t change a
minute of it.”
The Meg Page Fellowship
was created to honor Meg Page
’74, who died last year from
cancer. Tyler Perry ’07, who
also received a Page grant, is
in China on the School Year
Abroad program.
Page Fellowships offer financial support
to help students underwrite the expenses
of a summer project, internship,
or course of study devoted, ultimately,
to the provision of better healthcare.
Fellowships may be used to help students
pursue interests in public health,
family planning, medical research, mental
health, as well as non-western practices
of health and healing.
12 Taft Bulletin Fall 2005