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ECONOMICS STUDENT EARNS
By Klaas Hoekema CALENDAR EDITOR Next year, Calvin senior Sarah Kampfer will be pursuing her graduate studies in economics with the help of $13,000 from the Pew Charitable Trusts. This year, Sarah was one of 10 people from Christian colleges nationwide to be chosen for the Pew Younger Scholars Program. According to Ken Bratt, director of the Honors Program and coordinator of the Pew program at Calvin, the program “aims ultimately to produce the next generation of leaders of the academy.” It includes a scholarship worth $13,000 for each of the first two years of graduate study, and another $13,000 for the dissertation year – usually the fifth – for a total of $39,000. It also gives recipients numerous opportunities for interaction with some of the most influential people in Christian academia. To be selected for the program, Sarah had to fill out a one page application listing her accomplishments, activities, scholarships, etc. From those applications, 20 people were selected to be interviewed at Notre Dame. “Competition is very tight,” said Bratt. “The interview was terrible,” said Kampfer. The interviewers included professors of English, philosophy, sociology and history, reflecting the focus of the Pew Charitable Trusts on the humanities. “Economics is sort of on the fringe, which made it really hard to interview with those people,” she said. “I felt like the philosophy professor was not hearing what I was saying.” She told her family and friends that she wasn’t going to get the scholarship, but in January, she found out that she had been accepted. “I guess they liked me,” she said, “I thought they hated me, but I guess they liked me.” When asked whether she knows where she will go next year, she responded, “I wish.” In order to be eligible for the scholarship, she was required to apply to at least six graduate programs. So far, she has been accepted at the University of Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Iowa. Of those three, her first choice is the University of Minnesota, although she is still waiting to hear from the University of Michigan, Northwestern and Princeton. The advantages of being a Pew Younger Scholar are not limited to the financial assistance. Bratt noted that the winners are chosen early, before graduate programs have made their admissions decisions, and it “makes many universities very eager to have these students.” It is also the policy of the Pew Charitable Trusts to require that the schools which the Scholars choose grant them a full tuition waiver for the entire five years of their study. Another important benefit of the program is that winners are encouraged to attend annual conferences held by the organization for all of the Pew Younger Scholars along with the Pew Scholars, who include some of the most prominent Christian scholars in the humanities. According to Bratt, the attendees of these conferences, including the students, are able to “form very fruitful relations which provide a sense of mutual support within the Christian academic community.” This year there were 10 applicants from Calvin, of which two were interviewed. Last year two Calvin students won fellowships: Wiebe Boer, who is currently studying African history at Yale, and Abe Steen, who is studying English at the University of Illinois. In all, nine Calvin students have received these scholarships in the five year history of the program, including Justin Barret, who now teaches in the Calvin psychology department. |
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