I In Their Own Words
Cecilia Conrad (1972, TX) BY ANA E. LOPEZ
WHEN CECILIA CONRAD received a letter from President Richard Nixon in 1972 informing her that she’d been named a Presidential Scholar, she read it. And then she threw it away.
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the faculties at Barnard College and Duke University. In January 2013, Conrad joined the MacArthur Foundation as vice president in charge of the MacArthur Fellows Program, popularly known as the “genius grants.” She describes it as “one of the coolest jobs in the world.” In a typical workday of researching fellowship nominees and their work, she might find herself watching a trailer for a documentary film, listening to a musical composition, and reading an article on physics or chemistry. “[It’s] a lot of investigation and reading – it’s a very great interdisciplinary education,” she said. In reflecting on her Presidential Scholar recognition and where she finds herself today, Conrad found parallels. “One of the impacts that the Presidential Scholar award had on me was that it helped to build my self-confidence. It was a form of validation because you are working hard and excelling in a really small pond. And you know that it’s a very specific pond and you’re not sure how you would fare in the great outside world. And then you get this recognition that says, ‘Oh, yes. We think you’re special.’ And that kind of changes your ambition and your mind view and also conveys this certain responsibility. So, there’s an impact on you as an individual from being a Presidential Scholar. And then there was also kind of a secondary impact on my school, on my classmates, and on the people who came behind me that was sort of an inspiring impact, that, ‘Oh, gee, our school produced a Presidential Scholar. We could do something like this, too.’ So, there’s that kind of two-stage impact.
“When I look at the Fellows program, it’s very similar.We have an impact on individuals.There’s the impact of the financial reward, which is substantial, in that it gives them some freedom and some flexibility that they might not have otherwise. But many of the Fellows tell us that a big impact is that it builds their credibility. … Sometimes – particularly in the creative work – you are toiling away and what you’re trying to do is outside the box and people are looking at you with skepticism. And so, that validation is very important; it’s confidence-building. And then there is the secondary impact, much like the Presidential Scholar award, in that there’s an impact on the field: the impact on the institutions that you’re going to associate it with.The impact on a community around you. And in a recent review of the program, we found that a significant percentage of people who have heard of the Fellows program says that it inspires them. So, I see that that’s an important part of the program and it’s a part of the program that I have focused more attention on than I think we have in the past. That credibility, inspirational impact.”
“There is the secondary impact [of the MacArthur Fellows Program Conrad administers], much like the Presidential Scholar award, in that there’s an impact on the field: the impact on the institutions that you’re going to associate it with. The impact on a community around you.”
112 50 YEARS OF U.S. PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLARS
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“It was a moment in time [when] there was a lot of scrutiny of Nixon,” Conrad explained. “My first thought was that it was an attempt to recruit the youth to vote. That it was just a political thing.” It was only after her high school principal called her about the award that she began to realize this was for real and that it was a big deal. “It was very exciting, particularly for my high school to have that kind of recognition – it was [essentially] a segregated school in the South that didn’t have the kind of reputation I think people expect for someone who gets named a Presidential Scholar.” Once at National Recognition Weekend, Conrad found, to her delight, that the 1972 class of Presidential Scholars was quite diverse: “One of the exciting things was meeting people from lots of different backgrounds who were all excellent scholars and creative thinkers. … It was an opportunity to meet not only other African-American students from around the country, but other students from all sorts of backgrounds. And that was a lot of fun.” In the years since that D.C. trip, Conrad has built an impressive résumé. She had a noteworthy career at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., as an economics professor and an administrator; she served as associate dean of the college (20042007), as vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college (20092012), and as acting president (fall 2012). She was also an economist at the Federal Trade Commission and was a visiting scholar at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. She has served on