September 10, 2012

President announces academic engagement scholarship

President announces academic engagement scholarship



President Barry Glassner has announced a one-time President’s Scholarship for Academic Engagement. Four $5,000 scholarships are to be awarded to students with sophomore standing in 2012-13 for use in their junior year.

Glassner explained that the award is for students who best demonstrate an interdisciplinary approach to their selected major, as judged by proposals they submit for a self-directed study project for fall semester of their junior year. The project may address any area of study within the student’s major so long as it compels the student to think in interdisciplinary ways and to situate his or her major subject within the wider framework of the liberal arts. Proposals that are truly interdisciplinary—and that explicitly require consultation with ideas, concepts, and faculty members in other disciplines across the college—are particularly welcome.

The awards are renewable for the senior year based on continued excellence, making this potentially a $10,000 scholarship for successful applicants.

Awardees will be determined through a process of faculty nomination and assessment. Faculty members are invited to nominate students who propose a project for completion in fall 2013. A group of faculty whose own work exemplifies interdisciplinary scholarship will review applications from the students who have been nominated and meet the GPA requirement of 3.0 or better. Finally, the faculty group will then recommend recipients to the president, who will select the winners.

“Collaboration among increasingly specialized domains of knowledge is critical to the future for our country and the world,” Glassner said. “This award is meant to recognize students with sophomore standing who recognize and appreciate the unique capacity of a liberal arts education to facilitate the development of knowledge and creative work among disciplines.”

Glassner urged faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences to watch for strong candidates for the scholarship and to encourage their proposals.

The scholarship is awarded regardless of financial need; however, the total scholarship and grant received by a student from all sources may not exceed the total cost of tuition, room, and board.