SCHOLAR

FALL 2013 (864) 656-6160 www.clemson.edu/national_scholars 232 Brackett Hall Clemson, SC 29634-5108

Ta-Nehisi
Author and senior editor at The Atlantic magazine Ta-Nehisi Coates led the NSP freshman seminar prior to a campus-wide forum on September 26. His talk (Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War?) drew a capacity crowd to the Strom Thurmond Institute auditorium. The NSP co-sponsored Coates visit with several campus departments, including the Calhoun Honors College and the Pearce Center for Professional Communication.

stories

COATES
Speaking at Strom Thurmond Institute

Leading a discussion with National Scholars

Signing his book The Beautiful Struggle

Scholars Say CAROLINE HENSLEY | Coates talk was unlike any Ive heard. He presented his opinions in a way that was both comfortable and familiar, yet stunning and slightly radical. I loved his ideas about the Civil War, his polished mannerisms, and his genuine passion for learning. CLAIRE SPELLBERG | It was interesting listening to Coates perspective on speaking at a university with buildings dedicated to Pitchfork Ben Tillman and Strom Thurmond. I agree with his point that we cannot shy away from our past; all we can do is acknowledge it and try to move forward. KATELYN RAGLAND | Coates taught me that history is not necessarily in the past, but rather continues to affect those living in the present in tangible ways. Slavery, the Civil War, and the Civil Rights Act have together created a process and condition in the United States that is still evolving.

Adapted from Dr. Michael LeMahieus introduction of Coates. LeMahieu is NSP Faculty Fellow.
Many know Ta-Nehisi Coates through his blog at theatlantic.com, where his topics include teaching writing, learning French, Mad Men, Kurt Vonnegut, and race in America. Coates has reinvigorated the role of the public intellectual and reinvented it for the 21st century. His stance is not that of the cultural mandarin preaching to the converted, but rather that of an interested, informed, and relentlessly curious mind working through problems and responding to events. And his public is wide, including interlocutors who are alternately admiring and cantankerous but who are always part of a conversation. But being a public intellectual requires more than being public. There are, after all, any number of ways to provoke responses. Coates preferred route is to cast a critical eye on our current cultural discourses, to examine contemporary evidence and cite historical facts, and to reflect on values such as morality, justice, and equality. This combination gives his writing a combination of scope and incisiveness that is both made possible by and transcends his medium.

Director Jamie Williams Assistant Director Katie Bower Faculty Fellow Dr. Michael LeMahieu Director, Calhoun Honors College Dr. Bill Lasser Graduate Assistant Chelsea Muhlhahn
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2013 GRADUATES
Farewell Retreat The 2013 graduates ended their NSP careers just as they began in 2009: with an outdoors retreat, which provided time to reflect on their Clemson and NSP experiences. Mentor Awards The graduating Scholars presented the 2013 Awards of Distinction to the advisors who made a significant impact on their intellectual, personal, and professional development. Those recognized in spring 2013 were: Richard Brooks | Electrical and Computer Engineering Delphine Dean | Bioengineering Traci Harrington | Business and Behavioral Science Leidy Klotz | Civil Engineering Krista Rudolph | Microbiology Robert Schalkoff | Electrical and Computer Engineering After Graduation Most new alumni enrolled in graduate school, choosing from full-funding admissions to top programs, including Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the University of California-Santa Barbara, the University of Colorado, the University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Yale University.

AWARDS

2013 graduate Liz Johnson and Faculty Fellow Dr. Michael LeMahieu received two of Clemsons top awards in the spring. Johnson became the sixth National Scholar since 2005 to receive the Norris Medal, given to the best all-around Honors College director Dr. Bill graduating seLasser, Johnson, LeMahieu nior. LeMahieu received the Douglas W. Bradbury Award, given to a faculty member who has made outstanding contributions to the Calhoun Honors College. Additional Scholars receiving spring awards include ROSS BEPPLER Robert W. Moorman Award for Most Outstanding Junior, College of Engineering and Science CHRIS HAPSTACK Carl Donner Nelson, Jr., Award for Most Outstanding Junior, mechanical engineering LIZ JOHNSON Wallace Dabney Trevillian Award for Most Outstanding Senior, College of Business and Behavioral Science; Richard H. Klein Award in Finance for Scholarship and Service NADINE LUEDICKE National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship KARL LYKKEN John Charles Harden Award for Most Outstanding Junior, mathematical sciences ED SULLIVAN Walter M. Riggs Award for Most Outstanding Senior, computer engineering; Jerome V. Reel Award for Academic Excellence, Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society

NEW FACES
New Scholar Retreat The ten first-year Scholars were welcomed to the NSP with a three-day retreat planned and led by a team of six older Scholars. The new Scholars are: Carter Ellis | Mt. Pleasant, S.C. Amanda Farthing | Indialantic, Fla. Aaron Gordon | Bethesda, Md. Grace Greene | McDonough, Ga. Zachary Hawks | Cedar Park, Texas Caroline Hensley | Waxhaw, N.C. Katelyn Ragland | Knoxville, Tenn. Eliza Rhodes | Beaufort, S.C. Jacki Rohde | Arlington Heights, Ill. Claire Spellberg | Chevy Chase, Md. Special thanks to the retreat team: co-leaders Ross Beppler and Chris Hapstack, Shannon Kay, Jessica Lau, Katie Stahel, and Zach Whiteman

KATIE BOWER joined the NSP team this summer as assistant director, and will advise Scholars and coordinate enrichment programs. Bower also serves as assistant director of the Calhoun Honors College, focusing on programs that build the Honors community and connect Honors students to each other and to top faculty and staff. Bower succeeds Stefani Thachik, who worked with the NSP for five years before enrolling in a doctoral program at Virginia Commonwealth University.

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THE BALKANS
Bosnia and Herzegovina | Visegrad Bridge on the Drina River

Belgrade | With Prof. Matic

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Sarajevo | Meeting with presidential advisor

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Following a spring history course taught by professors James Burns and Steve Marks, the sophomore Scholars studied abroad at Stellenbosch University in South Africa for several weeks in the summer. The Scholars took courses on South African political history, the economics of South Africa, and the HIV/AIDS crisis in the country. They also volunteered in a local township, toured sites in the western Cape, and met with government officials and academics.

SOUTH AFRICA

Several Scholars studied the Balkan conflict and the European Union last spring with Prof. Vladimir Matic, a former diplomat of the former Yugoslavia. During Maymester, the students traveled with Matic to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia to meet with governmental and non-governmental officials, college students, and journalists.

Cape Town City Hall

Afrikaans Monument

Tribal face painting

Learning about the Afrikaans language

SUMMER
Austin Herbst volunteered in Costa Rica Medha Vyavahare volunteered at an orphange in Pune, India

Scholars volunteered, worked, interned, and conducted research around the world this summer. Below are only a few examples of where they made an impact with their intellect and leadership.
Lisa Watkins interned with the Environmental Protection Agency in Denver

Paige Pribonic interned with the State Department at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain

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232 Brackett Hall Box 345108 Clemson, SC 29634-5108

$200 000
The NSP celebrated a milestone at the Sept. 7 reunion tailgate: more than $200,000 in donations to the NSP foundation account from Scholars, alumni, and their parents since 2008. These gifts support the professional and educational enrichment opportunities that are the hallmark of the NSP.

...and the Natty Cup goes to!

Since 2009, the NSP Giving Cup has been awarded to the current Scholar, alumni, and parent cohorts with the highest percentage of donors to the NSP foundation account. The 2013 winners are below.

Thank you, President Barker!

Current Scholar Winners | 2010 Despite their fellow Scholars best efforts, the senior Scholars celebrated a four-peat, winning bragging rights to the Cup each year of their Clemson enrollment.

Pres. Barker talks with the Gordon family during the tailgate

Alumni Winners | 2009 Edward Sullivan represents his cohort in their victory.

Parent Winners | 2012 Parents of the sophomore Scholars celebrate their Natty Cup win.

In 2000, during his first months as president of Clemson University, James F. Barker said of the National Scholars Program To be a national university, we must have a nationalcaliber scholarship program. As he prepares to retire almost 14 years later, Pres. Barker calls the creation of the NSP one of the major milestones of his presidency. The students, alumni, families, and staff of the NSP are deeply grateful for Pres. and Mrs. Barkers vision, support, and hospitality over the years, and look forward to working with the Barkers in the future.

Support the
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NSP

Make a gift to the National Scholars Program Foundation at www.clemson.edu/academics/programs/national-scholars/giving Donations to the NSP are tax deductible

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