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Patrick D. Kelley ’09 (Shillington, Pa.) is one of 22 students nationally to receive a 2008 Beinecke Scholarship, a leading national award for graduate studies in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Lafayette is the only exclusively undergraduate liberal arts and engineering college among the institutions whose students were honored.
Kelley plans to attend graduate school for music composition and become a college professor. A double major in mathematics and music, he also plans to continue performing and composing jazz. Last semester, among numerous other musical projects, Kelley composed and premiered an original piece of music as part of the composition seminar taught by Skip Wilkins, assistant professor of music.
Alex Gendler ’06, a double major in English and philosophy, was awarded a Beinecke Scholarship in 2005. Lafayette is the only exclusively undergraduate liberal arts and engineering college with multiple Beinecke winners over the past four years. Each year, only about 100 colleges and universities are invited to nominate one student each for the Beinecke award.
Kelley will receive $4,000 immediately and an additional $30,000 while attending graduate school. Lafayette is the perfect place to pursue his undergraduate interests and goals, he says.
“I think the small class sizes and close student-professor relationships are great,” he says. “When I graduated high school, I thought I was going to be a high school math teacher, and three years later, I’ve received a scholarship to go to graduate school for music. Lafayette provided exactly the right conditions to ease me into the idea of pursuing music as a career, and then to facilitate my rapid musical growth.”
This summer, Kelley, who is also a Trustee Scholar, will be performing geometric research through the math department’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates program. During his senior year, he plans to complete an honors thesis combining math and music. Kelley also performs in Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Combo, Orchestra, and Concert Choir, and off campus with other Lafayette students and alumni as part of The Jack Furlong Quartet and the Ojespa Jazz Project.
Kelley says the College’s dedication to student-faculty interaction is one of the reasons he has received the scholarship.
“The music and math programs have been wonderful,” he says. “More specifically, professors Wilkins and [Larry] Stockton in the music department and professors [Elizabeth] McMahon and [L. Thomas] Hill in the math department have all helped me greatly in class and with other endeavors.”
See a list of recent Lafayette recipients of national and international scholarships and fellowships for undergraduate and post-graduate study. For information on applying for scholarships and fellowships, contact Julia A. Goldberg, associate dean of the College, (610) 330-5521.