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Printer-Friendly ModeRoberts Fellows class, trip schedule announced
January 31, 2005 —
For the sixth year, the Roberts Fellows from Saginaw Valley State University will have the opportunity to visit and study at several overseas locales.
China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan are what lie ahead for the 2004-05 Roberts Fellows, the sixth class of Fellows. Selected for their demonstrated goals, leadership ability and potential, as well as excellent academics, students enroll in a twelve-credit program designed to be an intensive study in leadership for the next generation of leaders. It is also earning a reputation as one of the most prestigious awards that SVSU doles out to its students.
Named after Donna Roberts, member of the SVSU Board of Control and a local business leader and philanthropist, the Roberts Fellows Program is a two-semester program that ultimately culminates in a month-long overseas trip to Southeast Asia. Developed to address leadership amongst SVSU students and to promote the development of the characteristics of strong leaders, all costs for the academic credits and the overseas experience are paid by the SVSU Foundation.
Roberts Fellows are selected from undergraduate students who have attained between 48 and 100 credit hours, and have a minimum of a 3.4 GPA. The program is highly competitive amongst the campus' most talented and gifted students, according to Dr. Drew Hinderer, professor of Philosophy and chair of the Roberts Fellowship Program. Around 80 students apply each year for the fellowships, and that group is then trimmed to approximately 20 students that interview for the fellowships directly.
The fall semester of study deals more with the historical and philosophical aspects of the region they will be visiting in the summer. Much of what the Fellows study during this time is geared to help them achieve a greater understanding of what their experience will entail from them, in terms of culture, religions, and language. The winter semester deals in turn with practical applications of the leadership skills that the Roberts Fellows will learn. Techniques to apply their leadership knowledge will be taught, and the students will become more attuned to their innate leadership qualities.
The six-credit, month-long trip to Asia is designed to put the students out of their comfort zone, Hinderer says. By placing the students in a region of the world that is in many ways completely the opposite of life in the United States, they will be forced to rely both on the practical knowledge that they have learned, and put this in the cultural context of Southeast Asia that they picked up on in the fall semester.
The sixth class of Roberts Fellows for 2004-05 is Erica Bischer, Emily Hammerbacher, Adam Mager, Sam Jenkins, Jason White, Lizzie Mills, Malcolm Wilson, Natalie Pretzer, Elizabeth Davis, Paul Casey, and Michael Cesal.