PROVIDENCE — Two foundations have announced the selection of five college students from Rhode Island to receive adventure fellowships totaling $21,313 from the Michael P. Metcalf Memorial Fund and the Christine T. Grinavic Adventurer’s Fund at The Rhode Island Foundation.

Metcalf was chairman and publisher of The Providence Journal when he died in a 1987 bicycling accident.

Grinavic, 26, was crewing on the sailing vessel Flying Colours when it disappeared off the Carolinas during the first named storm of 2007. She was a 2001 recipient of a Metcalf Fellowship.

Supplementing the income available through the Metcalf Fund, this fund enhances personal growth of students participating in travel and career internship programs abroad.

Receiving a combined Metcalf and Grinavic Fellowship is Laura Marrin, of Bristol, a sophomore at Wellesley College. Other 2009 Metcalf Fellowship recipients are Mariana De Coste Calla, of Riverside, a sophomore at Boston University; Michael Mangiante, of Wakefield, a freshman at Villanova University; Tianchi Wu, of South Kingstown, a sophomore at Yale University, and Seth Steinman, of North Kingstown, a sophomore at the University of Rhode Island.

Marrin will use her award toward a two-week trip to Lima, Peru, where she plans to learn about economic and community development. Her work will include helping children with their English studies as well as teaching young women computer and handiwork skills to enhance their chances of employment. De Coste Calla received a Metcalf Fellowship to participate in a six-week medical internship program in Tanzania with the Institute of Field Research Expeditions. The program includes one week of language and cultural immersion, followed by five weeks of volunteering at the Baraa Dispensary in the Baraa village.

Mangiante will apply his Metcalf Fellowship to a two-week travel excursion to Costa Rica to study a shade-growing method of producing coffee. The study will examine the effects on local forest and animal ecologies of coffee grown under more natural, forest-like conditions rather than plantations. Wu will use his Metcalf Fellowship to travel throughout Europe to visit major landmarks of Western historical and political thought, including visits to hometowns and gravesites of several great writers, philosophers and statesmen. Steinman will apply his Metcalf Fellowship to a four-week trip to Guatemala for cultural immersion and study of the economy of small businesses and the coffee trade. Applications for Metcalf Fellowships will be available again in November for college students wishing to pursue experiences in 2010.

tmorgan@projo.com