From its very founding, the College of William and Mary has been a community of rigor and heart -- a place where students and faculty engage questions of substance and import both intellectually, on our campus, and practically, beyond its walls. This ancient college's central value was immediately and remains, unquestionably, the education of citizen scholars.
As the 20th century became the 21st, our students have turned to socially responsive civic engagement on every front imaginable -- and quite a few that defy imagination. We've begun to see students traveling to new places over their breaks -- not to relax, but to answer needs, from Virginia's Eastern Shore to the Gulf Coast; from medical clinics in Central America to orphanages in Romania. We've seen lines of students camping out overnight at the Campus Center -- not for concert tickets, but for spots on service trips.
And we've begun to see students like Judd Kennedy '08. Over the past two years, I've come to know Judd well, and to rely on his insights as a President's Aide. Last month I was proud (but not surprised) to learn that Judd had been named a Marshall Scholar -- the College's third ever. (The highly competitive Marshall Scholarship program selects a few talented students each year and pays for their work toward a degree from a university in the United Kingdom.)
Judd is, to put it mildly, a talented young man. A Sharpe Community Scholar and Fellow, he has helped organize volunteer programs and design curricula, putting into powerful practice the ideal of service learning. His defining commitment to civic engagement has compelled him to volunteer at the local food pantry, work on student voting issues, and lead a spring break service trip to Camden, N.J. The summer before his senior year, he traveled to Syria to study Arabic, work with Iraqi refugees, and translate grant proposals for the Middle East Council of Churches.
Judd is, no doubt, remarkable. He's also more typical of today's William and Mary student than you might think. Along with the news of Judd's award, I also heard recently from the Fulbright program that the College was one of the 20 top American research universities in producing Fulbright awards for students in 2007-08. The Fulbright program is the U.S. government's flagship international exchange program; the competition for Fulbright awards is beyond intense. In an age of global challenge and opportunity, Fulbright grants are foundational components of our national efforts at cooperative outreach, research, service and understanding in an enlarging global context.
The Fulbright recognition speaks eloquent volumes about the quality of the students and the engaged commitment of faculty in Williamsburg. Our Fulbright scholarship recipients have used their awards to study the lives of working-class Ecuadorians, the impact of war in Argentina, the rights of women in Hong Kong -- putting their classroom studies to work in service to the greater good.
Though it may seem so, not all of our students receive Marshall or Fulbright scholarships. But many -- many -- are anxious to travel and to serve in material ways. For instance, 16 international service trips are planned this year -- up from three just a couple of years ago. Too often, though, our students' energy and ambition outpace their coffers. So we've announced a new fund we're calling Beyond These Walls, which will provide seed and matching monies to students organizing the sorts of service trips and activities that have become increasingly central to their William and Mary experiences -- and increasingly vital to the communities they serve. When students decide to devote themselves to the children of Honduras and Uganda, for instance (as did Cosmo Fujiyama '07 and George Srour '05), we want to be able to help them do their essential work while they're students, and help them sustain it beyond their undergraduate years.
William and Mary alumni are central to this effort. Your donations to the Beyond These Walls fund will be critical. And we'll want to keep you involved in our civic engagement efforts on other fronts as well. You'll be hearing very soon about ways you, your classmates and friends can join our students, faculty and staff in making this world a better place.
Those who study and work at the College, and who love it, inspire by their example, and encourage us all to work harder, to do more, to press ever forward. After two and a half years in Williamsburg, I remain consistently surprised and heartened by the raw academic achievement, the limitless generosity, the steely and patient dedication and -- perhaps most singularly -- the faithful and unfolding heart of the College of William and Mary.
