Emory Scholars Program

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History

By Dr. Garland Richmond

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. President Laney asked Associate Dean Garland Richmond to chair a university-wide committee that would design a University-wide program of merit scholarships and fellowships, to be implemented in the fall of 1981.

Meanwhile, so eager was Emory College Dean David Minter to begin awarding merit scholarships, that he arranged immediately for the selection of a group of honor scholars who would enter as freshmen in the fall of 1980. This first group of merit scholars was not, strictly speaking, part of the Woodruff Fellows and Scholars Program that was ultimately implemented; in fact, these 1980 scholars acknowledged that distinction by referring to themselves as "The No-Name Scholars," but its members did indeed make distinguished names for themselves in their undergraduate and graduate careers, and in their later professional lives as well.

In the fall of 1981, the first group of twelve Woodruff Scholars enrolled in Emory College. Dean Minter asked Professor John Howett of the Department of Art History to serve as the first adviser to the Woodruff Scholars and director of the program of intellectual and cultural enhancement that the College was prepared to offer these exceptional students. An additional twelve students enrolled in the College that same year as holders of other named scholarships endowed by or named for various friends of the University, and Dean Minter asked Professor of English John Sitter to serve as their advisor and program director. Not to be outdone by the "No-Name Scholars," this group called itself the "Eponymous Scholars." After only a few years, however, the decision was made to combine both the selection process and the programs of the Woodruff and the "Eponymous" Scholars, and Professor James McMahon of the Department of German Studies agreed to serve as director of this newly-named "Emory Scholars Program."

Gradually all merit awards in Emory College came to be included in the Emory Scholars Program, including the merit scholarships held by continuees from Oxford College. By the academic year 1988, when Professor Garland Richmond became director of this expanded program, the group had grown to over two hundred, including the Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholars (selected by a separate committee) and a number of new scholarships awarded by the Music Department, the Barkeley Forum, and other units of the College. Dr. Richmond served as the Scholars' adviser until his retirement in 2000. 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 have earned a generous share of the national and international post-graduate fellowships awarded to Emory College graduates, and their presence has immeasurably enriched the intellectual and spiritual community that is Emory University.

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