December 2013 I’m delighted to welcome you to this special publication, which commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Presidential Scholars Program, 1964-2014. The theme of the anniversary celebration is “Lessons from the Past: Challenges for the Future.” With that theme, we alumni are committing ourselves to defining who we are, evaluating what we have accomplished, and determining what kind of resource we can become for our nation and our world. Presidential Scholars from this century and the last are a divergent group, but all began the journey in a similar way: traveling to Washington, D.C., as high school seniors, feeling eager and expectant and exhilarated and perhaps just a little scared. I was one of those excited travelers in the first year, 1964, and for 50 years, my medallion has reminded me that I have a job to do. People expect things of me, and I need to deliver. And what an opportunity has been delivered to me now! In 2012, Brian Abrams, the president of the Presidential Scholars Alumni Association, asked me to lead the planning effort for the 50th anniversary. I accepted with that same sense of exhilaration (and, yes, perhaps a little fear) that I had known in youth because I could see what this golden anniversary might mean to the community of Scholars, now more than 6,000 strong. We live in different places. We pursue different career paths and make different personal choices. We span three generations, yet we are united by much more than just an award received as high school students. As Presidential Scholars, we move through our lives in ways both ordinary and unique. We live our years as all people do, but around the edges of our experience glows an aura of expectation: We are, after all, Presidential Scholars, and we have serious work to do. The occasion of the 50th anniversary invites us to celebrate our history and to plan what our future work will be. We ask ourselves what our shared honor demands of us, young and old alike. We look backward to understand where we have been; more important, we look forward, with renewed vigor, toward defining what our collaboration can become. This publication chronicles the history of the Presidential Scholars Program, captures some of the memories of Scholars of all ages, and showcases the achievements of some of the program’s most accomplished alumni. But it does more than that. It invites everyone who reads this – whether Scholar, parent, educator, or government official – to join actively in this community of scholarship, leadership, and innovation, for which new decades of productivity and promise lie ahead. Sincerely,
Faith Mace Brynie Presidential Scholar, West Virginia, 1964 50th Anniversary Planning Chair Vice Chair, Presidential Scholars Alumni Association
11 50 YEARS OF U.S. PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLARS
In Pursuit of Excellence