Louise writes from North America

Louise has been awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship

BBC Scotland reporter Louise Stewart has been awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to travel in North America and study the historic links between Scotland and the United States.

She will be looking at the impact Scots migrants have had on the culture there and will be travelling to New York, North Carolina, Washington, Boston and then onto Canada.

BOSTON

It's another early start as I fly from Washington to my next destination. I leave DC basking in hot sunshine and arrive in Boston on a cold, grey and wet Saturday morning.

In fact the best word to describe it is dreich.

It reminds me of home but perhaps that's fitting as Boston can boast some of the oldest Scottish links.

It was here the Scots' Charitable Society of Boston was set up and it can be traced back to 6 January 1657 when 28 Scottish men signed the "laws, rules and order of the poor boxes society".

The signatures of original members of the Charitable Society of Boston

The society's historian William Budde shows me the original records from the very first meeting.

He tells me the society initially would have helped Scots prisoners settle in the Massachusetts Bay Colony when their indentures expired.

The founders stated that their benevolence "should be for the releefe of our selves being Scottishmen or for any of the Scottish nation whome we may see cause to helpe..."

Established over 350 years ago, the society is the oldest charitable organisation in America.

Times have changed a great deal since its foundation but its current president, Frank Porter, says they remain true to the original principles.

But now instead of providing food, shelter and paying for burials they mainly fund education and scholarships.

Considerably later, the St Andrews Lodge of Freemasons was also established here in 1771.

Many members of the lodge were active participants in the Boston Tea Party in December 1773.

The event saw 45 tonnes of teas thrown overboard from three ships in protest at the British tax on tea.

The uprising was the spark for the Revolutionary War which united patriots across America.

On Monday the city comes alive as locals and tourists alike enjoy the warm sunshine.

I stroll through Boston Common, which is the oldest public park in America, over to Boston University to meet with Professor Archie Burnett.

Originally from Bo'Ness in West Lothian, he is now co-director of the university's editorial institute.

'Brain drain'

Archie tells me that Boston University was ground-breaking for having the first black graduate - Martin Luther King - and also the first female graduate.

And as I wander through the campus where students are packing up for the end of term - I see one taking down an Obama poster and in the opposite window there's a "Vote Hillary" banner.

For now the students still seem excited about the election and particularly about the potential of having the first black or female president.

Although the prospects of having a female president were severely dented in North Carolina this week when Obama took another victory, which has led for increasing calls for Hillary to pull out of the race for the White House.

The next day I meet Dr Irwin Thompson.

A medical graduate of Glasgow University he left Scotland behind when he graduated.

He taught medicine at Harvard and was one of three founders of Boston In Vitro Fertilization, which became the largest IVF clinic in the world.

He regularly returns to Scotland to see family but he, like many other Scots of his generation, says he had so much more opportunity to pursue his career in the US than in his home country.

He feels strongly that there are talented scientists and academics in Scotland but that they don't necessarily have the same business opportunities as they do elsewhere.

And his sentiments are echoed by another Scot who was part of the great "brain drain", Ronald Lindsay.

He moved to the States 20 years ago to found a biotech company.

He's been in the industry ever since and when I meet him he's just launched a company in Edinburgh working in conjunction with the university.

He feels strongly that there are talented scientists and academics in Scotland but that they don't necessarily have the same business opportunities as they do elsewhere.

He says business is about taking risks and believes there needs to be much greater investment.

He has big plans and aims to set up a company each year in Scotland.

He is part of Globalscot - an international network of influential business leaders who are committed to generating opportunities for Scotland.

Helen Sayles is another Globalscot.

She grew up in Ayrshire, initially moved to New York to become a nanny, but is now senior vice-president of human resources and administration at a Boston-based insurance company.

She says she was never an "A" student but admits she is "living the American dream" and hopes by mentoring students at her former school and offering internships to undergraduates others will be able to enjoy the opportunities she has.

On the way home I decide to walk the Freedom Trail.

The guide, Donald Watson, is extremely knowledgeable and talks animatedly about the historic sights.

He mentions the Scots' role in the Boston Tea Party and also points out the site where Alexander Graham Bell, who was born in Edinburgh, invented the telephone.

By 1878 he'd set up the first telephone exchange and just a few years later the first long distance connections were made between Boston and New York.

So, the inventor of modern telecommunications was a Scot.

And they were also amongst the earliest settlers here - many of the streets have distinctly Scottish names - but the links here have been much diluted over the years.

In fact, most people would tell you Boston is largely an Irish city and their influence can clearly be seen - with Irish pubs on every other street corner.

Maybe because the Irish came later and in larger numbers.

But on my last day in America, I reflect that the Scots' influence is almost everywhere - in culture, education and politics.

It would be a shame if that's not recognised and the Scots' contribution becomes just a footnote in American history.

My next stop is across the border to Nova Scotia, in Canada.