Bates College student Elizabeth LaCroix '23 named a Thomas J. Watson Foundation fellow

One of 42 students graduating from U.S. colleges to receive a grant for international travel and exploration in 2023-2024

by Bates College

Lewiston, ME (05/19/2023) — Bates College student Elizabeth LaCroix '23 of Richmond, R.I. is one of 42 graduating seniors from 33 U.S. colleges receiving grants from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation for international travel and exploration in 2023-24.

The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship is a one-year grant for purposeful, independent exploration outside the U.S., awarded to graduating seniors nominated by one of 41 partner institutions. Watson fellows conceive original projects, deciding on their own where to go, who to meet and when to change course, producing a year of personal insight, perspective and confidence that shapes the arc of fellows' lives. Started in 1968, Watson Fellows comprise leaders in every field. The one-year stipend is $40,000.

A double major in English and chemistry, LaCroix will travel to Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Ecuador, China, and India for her project, "The Global Story of Menstrual Pain."

Drawing from her own personal experiences, she will collect stories on the subject of menstrual pain from patients, doctors, and researchers to create a global perspective on the issue.

Since she began menstruating, LaCroix has dealt with extreme pain during her period. "I would wake up in the middle of the night to unbearable pain coursing through my body," she recalls. After graduating from high school, she started taking hormonal birth control, a common medical approach to treating patients with period-related challenges, including pain. Finally, she felt normal, "and it was this sense of normalcy that made me realize my pain wasn't normal, no matter how common it was."

Pain defines the human condition, yet each person's pain is deeply personal, a truism that LaCroix learned while volunteering at Maine Family Planning in Lewiston during her time at Bates. There, she met a patient who, like LaCroix, also experienced severe menstrual pain. LaCroix initially felt kinship, but "thinking of our shared experiences also led me to focus on our differences," she says. "We were not one and the same; I could never know or understand her pain." For LaCroix, it was an epiphany. "If no one experiences menstrual pain the same, then there should be multiple ways of treating it."

To bring greater understanding of this complexity during her Watson year, LaCroix will use story-gathering skills she honed as an English major and as a staff member of The Bates Student, including a stint as managing news editor when she was a junior. "I believe the menstrual pain field is missing the human connection, and the stories of all involved can heal the gaping wounds of miscommunication between patients, doctors, and researchers," she says.

In India, she'll learn more about medicinal yoga, or chikitsa, with Tilottama Patil, founder of Aakar Yog Chikitsa Institute in Pune. In the Netherlands, she will interview Tinde van Andel, an ethnopharmacologist at the University of Leiden who studies the traditional use of plants for medicinal and other purposes. In Ecuador, LaCroix will learn about traditional Andean medicine integrated into modern approaches.

At Bates, LaCroix is a dean's list student and a four-year member of the cross country and track and field teams, serving as a cross country captain this year, and has been a leader of Fem STEM, supporting female-identifying students interested in STEM. LaCroix plans to pursue a Ph.D. in chemistry and a career in medicinal chemistry. Looking ahead, she already knows one thing for sure, "mentoring young scientists, especially women and those from underrepresented groups in science, will be a huge part of my future career."

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