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 Elon
University's annual Fellows and Scholarship Weekend March 4 and
5 drew hundreds of top high school students who have been accepted
for the 2005-06 freshman class. The students were competing for
positions in the Journalism and Communications Fellows, Honors Fellows,
Isabella Cannon Leadership Fellows, Jefferson Pilot Business Fellows,
Elon College Fellows and Engineering Candidates programs.
The 82 participants
vying for the 30 positions as Journalism and Communications Fellows
included high school seniors from 18 states, with SAT scores ranging
up to 1480. Many of them are newspaper editors, yearbook editors
and TV producers and/or anchors for their school media organizations,
and a number of them have already completed some internship work
or job-shadowing with professional media organizations in their
home towns.
At Elon University,
Fellows students participate in special sections of the Elon 101,
Communications in a Global Society, Media Writing and Digital Media
Convergence courses. They participate in at least one media tour
of a major U.S. city, and each is awarded a $750 grant for travel
and study abroad. Five Fellows are awarded scholarships of $3,000
per year of study at Elon.
Dozens of School
of Communications faculty members and many communications students
socialized with Fellows candidates and their families at a three-hour
social event the evening of March 4, filling all of the hallways
and large spaces of first-floor McEwen. Faculty members met as many
of the Fellows candidates as possible at the reception, recording
impressions and learning about the students' aspirations. Current
Elon students answered questions and told of their personal experiences
at Elon.
The Saturday
of each Fellows weekend is devoted to an assessment of the candidates.
Prospective Fellows attended one of 23 sessions at which top Elon
faculty members lectured; the candidates were then required to write
essays based on the lectures. Among the lecturers from the School
of Communications were Tom Nelson, Brooke Barnett and Michael Frontani.
Following the essay sessions, candidates were assigned to each meet
individually with an Elon faculty member for a 20-to-30-minute interview.
Fellows and
their families were also invited to attend one of two afternoon
general-information sessions about the program offered at Elon University's
School of Communications.
The candidates'
performances will be rated by a faculty committee that includes
George Padgett, Ray Johnson, Rich Landesberg and Journalism and
Communications Fellows Program Director Kelli Burns.
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