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By Sharron Hannon
shannon@uga.edu
Sixty prospective freshmen competing for UGA’s most prestigious scholarship award for  undergraduates came to campus for the last leg of the selection process Feb. 25 and 26.
The students--from Georgia and nine other states--are finalists for the Foundation Fellows Program, which not only covers the full cost of attendance at the university, but provides travel-study and professional-development grants and a variety of academic enrichment opportunities.
Though only a third of the group will actually be named Foundation Fellows, all will be offered major scholarship awards, thanks to the creation of a new scholarship fund, approved by the University of Georgia Foundation trustees earlier this month.
The Bernard Ramsey Honors Scholarship Fund--named for the university’s most generous benefactor, who died in 1996--will provide $3,000 awards to in-state students and $5,000 awards to out-of-state students who attend the Foundation Fellows interview weekend.
“This significant development creates the opportunity to place all 60 finalists for the Foundation Fellowship this year on major scholarships,” says Jere Morehead, associate provost and director of both the Honors and Foundation Fellows programs. “It’s going to be an important recruitment tool for the Honors Program and the Foundation Fellows Program. It also allows the admissions office to offer Charter Scholarships of $1,000 to a wider pool of other outstanding freshman applicants. In the past, Charter Scholarships were made to all Foundation Fellows finalists.”
The Foundation Fellows Program was established in 1972 by the trustees of the UGA Foundation and is supported by a $47 million endowment. Currently, 60 students are in the program.
In addition to receiving the largest financial award available to undergraduates, Fellows participate in Honors classes and activities outside the classroom--including dinner seminars with faculty, meetings with special guests visiting UGA, cultural events and field trips. International travel-study grants provide opportunities to further particular academic interests.
Needless to say, the Fellowship is a coveted honor. The average SAT of this year’s 60 finalists is 1513 and their average high school grade point average is 4.07 (on a 4.0 scale), according to Steve Elliott-Gower, associate director of the Foundation Fellows Program. The group is about evenly divided between males and females, he notes, with a total of 43 from Georgia, 17 from out of state. While most have not decided on a major, several are interested in pre-med or the sciences, particularly genetics and biology.
“All of the finalists met an extraordinarily high academic threshold,” says Elliott-Gower. “And beyond that threshold they demonstrated excellence in a remarkable array of non-academic activities and talents. It’s going to be wonderful to see many of them back here in the fall as Ramsey Honors Scholars.”
The 60 finalists, accompanied by their parents, had a full schedule while on campus. The students participated Friday in seminars led by faculty, while interviewers observed their performance. After a reception and dinner, they had time to relax a bit and get to know current Fellows before the round of interviews Saturday with senior faculty, Foundation trustees, and admissions and student affairs staff.
“The interview weekend is one of the highlights of my academic year,” says political science professor Gary Bertsch, who also serves as a Foundation trustee. “It’s inspirational to sit down with these outstanding young people who are interested in coming to UGA. The difficulty at the end of the day is deciding among the talented pool of applicants.”
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