Thomasville High School Class of 2020 senior Max White has been awarded the University of Georgia Foundation Fellowship. Founded in 1972 by the University of Georgia Foundation’s trustees, the Foundation Fellowship is the University’s foremost undergraduate scholarship, placing students in a community of similarly dedicated scholars.
The scholarship offers a stipend that approximates the cost of attendance, a post-first-year Maymester study abroad program at Oxford University, individual travel-study grants, spring group travel-study, research and academic conference grants, dinner seminars with some of the University’s best minds, and a mentoring plan that matches Fellows with professors who share their interests. Beyond the obvious scholastic benefits, the Fellows program emphasizes fellowship, sharing of resources and ideas, and lifelong friendships. Peer mentoring (Big and Little Fellows), dinner seminars and book discussions, cultural events, group travel, the Fellows Library in Moore College, and twice-a-year off-campus retreats promote a sense of community among the Fellows. Fellowship recipients quickly find themselves at home on campus within a close-knit group of scholars, and through extensive travel, they extend that experience to include global communities.
After being named as a finalist in January, White attended a weekend of interviews. A few weeks before the interviews, Max was sent a reading list to prepare for the group discussions on the Friday of Interview Weekend.
The faculty lecture was delivered by Professor Sonja West from the UGA School of Law. Her lecture, “Defending the First Amendment in an Anti-Press Age,” was intended to lend itself to lively conversation among finalists in their small group discussions. In addition to this focused reading, the director and coordinators of the program recommended that White read news sources daily to stay abreast of national and international events.
David S. Williams, Ph.D., Associate Provost & Director of the UGA Honors Program, assured White that all of the finalists are all truly extraordinary people and that the job in selecting Fellows was difficult.
“My offer of the Fellowship should convey to you how impressed we all are with you, and how much we would welcome and enjoy the opportunity to work with you,” said Williams.