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For the last four years, the Davis United World College Scholars Program has helped international students pursue a quality undergraduate education at Lafayette.
The College currently has 13 Davis Scholars representing 10 countries on campus. They include two juniors, nine sophomores, and two first-year students, and come from Albania, the Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Kenya, Moldova, Panama, Sierra Leone, and Uganda.
Lafayette is one of 65 American colleges and universities that recruit Davis Scholars from the 10 United World College (UWC) campuses throughout the world. Through private philanthropy, the program provides scholarships to students who have proven themselves by completing their last two years of high school at a UWC school, which are located in the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Norway, Singapore, Swaziland, United Kingdom, and Venezuela.
“The United World Colleges all offer a two-year international baccalaureate program, which we view as a rigorous high school curriculum and which is an especially strong preparation for a liberal arts curriculum,” explains Robert “Skip” Staats, associate director of admissions. “The UWC students all went through an incredibly selective process in their home countries to be selected to attend a UWC, so these students are academically strong. They have also spent two years at the UWC living as boarding students and interacting with students from around the world, thus their adjustment to college is smoother. The international baccalaureate program has a community service component, so these students arrive on our campus with interesting extracurricular experiences and the desire to continue these activities.”
For biochemistry major Daniela Duca ’09 (Chisinau, Moldova), the program is a stepping-stone in her goal to earn a Ph.D. by combining science and economics. She attended United World College of the Adriatic located in Duino, Italy.
“The Davis scholarship gives the opportunity to United World College graduates to continue their studies in the U.S.,” she says. “Since I am a science major, I can only compare it to a biochemical process to make it clearer. It is like the enzyme of an intermediate step in the long pathway of pursuing my career goals; if not for this enzyme, the end product would not be completed. Ultimately, my decision of coming to Lafayette was influenced strongly by the cost coverage, and the Davis scholarship played the most important role.”
Still deciding between pursuing an M.B.A. or returning to Uganda to work for an engineering company, chemical engineering major Martha Were ’09 (Kampala, Uganda) believes the scholarship program made Lafayette a possibility for her undergraduate studies. She attended Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
“[The program] has provided the necessary addition to financial aid to enable me to pursue a degree of my choice, chemical engineering, at a competitive college of my choice, Lafayette,” she says.
Were was drawn to Lafayette because of the chance to assist professors with research and its small class size. She also wanted to take advantage of the strong engineering program at a liberal arts institution and the College’s proximity to New York City and Philadelphia.
Were is now doing EXCEL research on the retention of minority students in engineering. She is a member of the student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Minority Scientists and Engineers, International Students Association (ISA), Lafayette Christian Fellowship, and Lafayette Environmental Awareness and Protection. She is secretary of Foundation for the Awareness and Alleviation of Poverty and coordinates the Kids at Third Street program through the Landis Community Outreach Center. Were plans to study abroad this spring.
Like Were, Duca chose Lafayette because its small-college atmosphere offered her a chance “to get involved rather than just being a drop of water in the ocean” and to have meaningful student-mentor relationships with faculty. Duca has made the most of her Lafayette experience by participating in a variety of activities.
She conducted EXCEL Scholars research on the pharmaceutical potential of gamma-hydroxy butenolides this past summer.As a member of ISA, she maintains its website and was the European Committee leader for its Extravaganza last spring. She is a public relations officer and disc jockey for Lafayette’s radio station WJRH. She volunteered for Make A Difference Day and won first place in the Lehigh Valley Organic Chemistry competition. Duca also is a resident adviser and a member of the student chapter of the American Chemical Society and German Club.
Six years ago, philanthropist Shelby M.C. Davis chose Colby College, College of the Atlantic, Middlebury College, Princeton University, and Wellesley College as the inaugural institutions which would recruit students from the Davis United World College Scholars Program. Davis offered to provide scholarships for every UWC graduate who gained acceptance and then matriculated at these pilot schools. This remains the case for these five inaugural schools.
To help schools like Lafayette that have since joined the program, Davis philanthropy contributes up to $10,000 for each scholar for every year of a four-year undergraduate degree program. All of these additional schools are also awarded a $5,000 grant each year in support of their admission outreach.