Elon University welcomed nearly 600 families on campus March 6-7 for Fellows and Scholarship Weekend, a time when admitted students considering fellows programs completed interviews, attended seminars and engaged with current Fellows.
Of the six Fellows Programs Elon offers, Honors Fellows receive the highest scholarship amount at up to $19,500 annually. At a grand total of $78,000 over a four-year period at Elon, Honors Fellows have the opportunity to receive up to $32,000 more in scholarships than any other Elon Fellow.
“That higher amount [for Honors Fellows] helps us be competitive in attracting high-achieving students who are being courted by some of the top schools around the country,” said Tom Mould, director of the Honors Fellows Program at Elon.
Each year, 40 students with high achievement records and recommendations are selected to enter the Honors Fellows Program.
The program places emphasis on intellectually demanding Elon courses in writing and critical thinking, preparing Honors Fellows for a project of professional quality that will be published in Elon’s Belk Library by the end of their four-year program.
“I would recommend [the Honors Fellows program] to most students, but only if they truly understand what is required and if they think it's going to help them get to where they want to be,” said junior Honors Fellow Michelle Alfini.
While Honors Fellows have the prestige of the program on their side, Alfini said the high scholarship amount doesn’t necessarily make the research any easier. She added that there’s still pressure to prioritize Honors Fellows duties and requirements with school classes and projects.
Still, Alfini, whose research focused on media coverage of human rights violations in Olympic host countries, credits the Honors Fellows program for shaping her experience at Elon.
“It's easy to look at it as just an academic scholarship with a few rigorous classes,” she said. “But it's a lot more than that."
Alfini said that while the generous scholarship is what makes Elon accessible to many potential Honors Fellows, the program itself is what provides Fellows with endless opportunities.
From meeting with Elon’s National and International Fellowships office to collaborating with Elon’s finest professors and learning about the Lumen Prize within their first year, Honors Fellows are a group of students who have been set aside as a targeted intellectual community, Alfini said.
The Isabella Cannon Leadership Fellows program, which selects only five students to become Fellows each year, is based on a three-tier Leadership Education and Development system (LEAD). The program teaches participating Fellows to develop their leadership skills and to present a common good project and leadership legacy paper.
Leadership Fellows receive $5,500 each in scholarships in addition to any annual Presidential Scholarship, bringing the total to a potential $11,500 per year. Each Fellow is also expected to complete a minor in leadership, which includes topical classes and a Winter Term domestic travel experience.
Elon College Fellows, a program for students majoring in the arts and humanities, social sciences or natural and mathematic sciences, provides an annual scholarship of up to $11,500 annually.
“College Fellows participate in academic events and seminars, a winter term course with embedded travel, have a study abroad grant, a two-year research experience mentored by an Elon faculty and funding to support that research,” Nancy Harris, director of the College Fellows Program, said.
Three hundred and thirty College Fellows applicants have been invited to attend this weekend’s events, about 50 of whom will enter Elon as College Fellows in the fall.
“The current cohort size of 50 allows for diversity of academic interests within the arts and sciences and enables faculty to provide a quality mentoring experience for those students,” said Harris.
Elon’s other school-specific Fellows Programs—Communications, Business and Teaching—each award students scholarships of up to $11,500 annually. These programs target students who have already decided on a major during their Elon application process, unlike the Leadership and Honors Fellows Programs.
Manasi Bhagia, a fourth year Business Fellow, said the Business Fellows Program has awarded her immeasurable personal and professional development. A plus, she said, is being able to learn and grow with her cohort during their time together at Elon and abroad.
“I have had the chance to travel to Poland and New York City, sit on panels that interact with parents and incoming Elon students, make professional contacts with some of the top firms in my industry, take a project management seminar with a real-life, hands on project and so much more,” said Bhagia.
In alignment with Elon’s global engagement initiative, five of the six programs offer an additional $1,000 grant for a university-approved study abroad or Study USA experience, although Honors Fellows may use their $1,000 grant toward any of the five approved Elon Experiences.
In lieu of a global study grant, the Teaching Fellows Program enables participating students to study abroad in the spring semester of their sophomore year in England, Costa Rica or a country related to their language study at no extra tuition cost as well as travel domestically on two program-led trips during Winter Term.
In addition to scholarships, academic opportunities and study abroad benefits, all Fellows are eligible for living-learning communities (LLCs), forgoing traditional housing to live with Fellows in their program.