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By Margaret LeRoux
 Even
though more than 25 years have passed since Dr. Joyce O’Shaughnessy,
M.D., ’78 first encountered a Fenwick Scholar, the
memory is still vivid.
“I was with a group of freshmen in Kimball Hall and an upperclassman walked
in. All my friends whispered and pointed, ‘There’s the Fenwick Scholar.’ I
had no idea what a Fenwick Scholar was, but I realized then it was a big deal.”
A big deal is right. The Fenwick, established in 1966, is one of the highest
honors the College bestows. Students selected as Fenwick Scholars design a challenging
program of independent study and research that substitutes for their entire fourth
year of classes. Fenwick Scholars have done historical and scientific research;
they have written novels and staged original plays. Last year’s Fenwick
Scholar produced a compact disc of Balinese music.
Despite the prestige, the Fenwick Scholar program is a low profile honor. Like
O’Shaughnessy, many first-year students are unaware of its existence, but
students of outstanding ability are often encouraged by their professors to consider
participation in the program.
“One of my biology professors told me about the program,” O’Shaughnessy
recalls. “I was surprised that he thought I was able to do that level of
independent research.”
Three years later O’Shaughnessy was herself a Fenwick Scholar. Her research
project on the structure of cells associated with childhood leukemia was the
first step in a long, successful career as an oncologist. Today, the physician,
who lives in Dallas, Texas, still devotes some of her time to clinical research
on cancer.
In the early years of the Fenwick, more than one student took part in the program
each year—1969 holds the record with 11 Scholars. Since 1973, however,
the honor has been given to one or two students annually. At first, Fenwick Scholars
had to be in the College Honors Program, but this restriction was eliminated
a short time after the program’s inception. To become eligible, candidates
must first be nominated by the chair of their major department; they then submit
to a rigorous selection process that includes interviews with the president of
the College, the dean and other faculty members who serve on the Fenwick Selection
Committee.
“The proposed Fenwick project needs to be ambitious enough to equal eight
courses,” says Ann Bookman, who, until recently, served as director of
the Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies (CISS) which administers
the Fenwick Scholar Program. “Students need a real grounding in what they’re
doing.”
Because of the academic rigor of the program, Fenwick Scholars must take a focused
approach to senior year, spending hours in the library or laboratory, concentrating
their efforts on the presentation that is the culmination of their project. In
front of an audience of faculty, friends and family, Fenwick Scholars present
a lecture on their research, or, in some cases, give a performance. They also
submit a written document of their achievement to the College library.
The Fenwick Scholar experience is both exhilarating and terrifying, according
to a survey of 73 past recipients of the academic award. The pressures can be
intense, say former Fenwick Scholars, but the scholastic achievement is almost
always profoundly rewarding.
Royce Singleton, professor of sociology, devised the survey after a chance meeting
with Barbara Tylenda ’79, a former Fenwick Scholar who told him the experience
changed her life.
“I had attended Barbara’s presentation when I was a new faculty member
and remember being so impressed at what a student could achieve,” says
Singleton.
When Singleton met Tylenda some 20 years later, she was still enthusiastic about
her Fenwick experience. “That got me thinking about how other Fenwick Scholars
felt,” he adds.
Singleton, whose expertise is surveys, decided to compile one to learn how other
Fenwick Scholars had been influenced by the experience. Last summer he and Bookman
mailed the participants a detailed questionnaire. They were gratified by the
response.
“We received 45 questionnaires back,” notes Singleton. “That’s
about 67 percent of the Fenwick Scholars—a very good response for a mail
survey.”
“Overall,” he adds, “Fenwick Scholars are a very impressive
group of people.”
Following are some highlights from the survey:
15 of the 45 surveyed are currently working in higher education; eight are in
the medical field
44 of the 45 attended graduate school
18 have Ph.D.s; six are physicians; and
seven are lawyers
10 report an income of $200,000 or higher
21 report an income of $100,000 or
higher
73 percent are practicing Catholics
74 percent participated in charitable or
volunteer activities during the past
year
45 percent belong to a faith-based or church-affiliated group
Besides demographic information, the survey asked open-ended questions about
the Fenwick experience: What was the best thing about being a Fenwick Scholar?
What was the worst? How did the program benefit you? What recommendations would
you make to improve the program?
Fenwick Scholars were eloquent in describing “the best” aspects of
their year.
“Complete academic freedom,” writes one respondent. “I loved
being able to devote myself to a topic I was deeply interested in for an entire
year. …It’s truly an unusual experience for an undergraduate, and
it was a tremendous blessing for me. It transformed me from a history student
into a historian.”
“Personally, nothing comes close to the feeling of having completed such
an involved project,” writes another former Fenwick Scholar. “I am
truly proud of the evolution of my thesis, from its conception to its completion
in the morning hours in the Stein computer lab.”
“I think I read more books in that year than in the other three combined,” writes
another. “It was really heaven for me because I had so many books I was
interested in connecting to my project.”
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