6000 dollars - where to?

[freespiritz]

I've started looking up stuff I need to do to get a grant for next summer from my college. Every year they give out 6k to a few students to do a project of their own design. I have no idea why I didn't apply for these over the last two years, but I will make up for that this year and hopefully get in!

One, the Phillips Fellowship, providesfunding (up to $6,000) for an exceptional international or otherwise cross-cultural experience. Fellowships may focus on research, service-learning, or career exploration, or some combination of the three. I'm thinking of working with a couple I met in Costa Rica who set up an organization/home to defend children's rights and provide education in Nepal, and they said they'd love to have me volunteer there. www.mysmallhelp.org if anyone is interested.

The other one is the Otis Fellowship which provides major funding (up to $6,000) for travel, supplies, equipment, etc., for a student who has designed an exceptional independent project that focuses on the relationship between individuals, societies, and the natural world. I *wanted* to try for the Camino Santiago and walk across Spain, but I just checked and someone did it last year, so I don't really know if they'd fund the same project again.

SO I'd love some tpunk suggestions, more for the Otis, (so communities where I'd be able to commune with nature, lol) but I'd just love to bounce ideas around. I'll be in Italy until May, so somewhere in the region would be great (hence my Spain idea). Anywhere works though, although I do have a thing for places like Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Israel and so forth.