History
When you choose to come to Emory College of Arts and Sciences as an Emory Scholar, you are choosing to be engaged in the world in numerous and rewarding ways. The Emory Scholars Program will be your partner in connecting your vision with that of a great university that purposefully challenges its students to push back the horizon of their own knowledge and to participate in the creation of new knowledge. We welcome your contributions as a scholar citizen to Emory and beyond, and we look forward to accompanying and supporting you in your journey.
Like so much else at Emory today, the Scholars Program had its inception in the munificent 1979 gift to the University from the Emily and Earnest Woodruff Fund of the Woodruff Foundation. Almost immediately after the announcement of the Woodruff gift, Emory President James T. Laney announced that a significant portion of the principal would be set aside to endow generous scholarships based solely on merit, with the aim of attracting to Emory students of the very highest caliber, regardless of their own financial resources, and providing for them opportunities that would enrich their Emory experience and help them to realize their extraordinary potential. Thus, a University-wide program of merit scholarships and fellowships was implemented in the fall of 1981, and the first group of twelve Woodruff Scholars enrolled in Emory College of Arts and Sciences.
An additional twelve students enrolled in the College that same year as holders of other named scholarships endowed by or named for various fiends of the University. Within a short time the selection process and the programs of the Woodruff and other named scholarships were combined in the Emory Scholars Program. Gradually all merit awards in Emory College of Arts and Sciences came to be part of the Emory Scholars Program, including those held by continuees from Oxford College, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholars and scholarships awarded by the Music Department and the Barkley Forum.
From the earliest days of the Emory Scholars Program, its members have provided leadership in all facets of College life: in student government, in the visual and performing arts, and in every academic field. They earn a generous share of the national and international post-graduate fellowships awarded to Emory College of Arts and Sciences graduates, and their presence immeasurably enriches the Emory University community.
-Dr. Vialla Hartfield-Mendez , Spring 2010
MISSION
The Emory Scholars Program provides merit-based awards to students who have established strong academic records while actively involved in their school and community.
The Emory Scholars Program is dedicated to the academic enrichment of the University, embracing a challenging standard of achievement locally, nationally, and internationally.
Through diverse extracurricular activities, the Scholars strengthen community-building relationships on and beyond the campus. The Emory Scholars Program offers opportunities for research, focused conversations with faculty, summer study abroad, and internships. Scholars can explore how learning, research, community-building and service make a difference locally and globally.
Scholar Legacy
The Emory Scholars Program builds on the legacy of intellectual enrichment and service that defines Emory College of Arts and Sciences. Acknowledging our past as we look to the future, the Scholars Program encourages all scholars to learn more about their particular scholarship and its benefactors. Periodically, there are legacy events that highlight a particular scholarship or aspect of the Scholars Program that we want to continue and build upon in the future.
Individually and as a community, Emory Scholars aspire to academic excellence and positive community and social change, growing stronger and closer as a group as we live into our legacy. The Emory Scholars community is in constant creation, and responds to the dreams and aspirations of its members.
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