Loewenstern Fellowship
2007 Proposal to President David Leebron
In the V2C, President David Leebron set the goal of “a greater international orientation” for Rice University. Specifically, he wrote, “We must become an international university with a more significant orientation toward Asia and Latin America. . . and foster the international learning (both here at Rice and around the world) of our faculty, students, and staff.”1 President Leebron has also challenged the university community to educate undergraduates who will make a “distinctive impact on the world.”
The generous gift of Walter Loewenstern (’58) will contribute significantly to the achievement of these goals. We propose use of the gift to enable up to 50 undergraduates each year to expand and deepen their educations by taking part in the transformative experience of a significant period of service or research in Latin America or Asia. Students selected for participation will be designated “Loewenstern Fellows” and receive stipends of up to $6,500 to cover travel, living expenses, and program fees.2
Today’s global society is a diverse and fast-changing environment that poses challenges – and opportunities – unimaginable only a decade ago. As President Leebron noted in the V2C, “Adequate preparation of our students [in this environment] requires that they be able to learn from and work in more than one culture.”3 Rising to this challenge requires that we think anew about how best to educate Rice students to be global citizens. An essential route to success in this venture, we believe, is to join intellectual inquiry with experiences outside the classroom. Only by active engagement with cultures, people, and problems different than their own will our undergraduates acquire the skills, insight, and values that will enable them to become principled, civic-minded leaders in the 21st century.
Housed within the Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) and distinct from Study Abroad, the program we propose will focus primarily on service opportunities that immerse students in cultures different from our own. Why service? Three reasons stand out: First, service – or "contributing to the welfare of humankind,” in the words of Edgar Odell Lovett – has been at the core of Rice University’s mission since its founding nearly a century ago. In 2006, the Board of Trustees renewed this commitment by including it formally in a new mission statement.4 Second, experience strongly suggests that Rice students today are hungry for opportunities to serve, particularly when the opportunities engage dilemmas that transcend intellectual and political boundaries. Finally, we choose service because it teaches in unique and lasting ways. As John Dewey explained in the 1930s, learning is greatly enhanced when knowledge is linked to social inquiry, rather than disconnected from action and isolated in academic culture.5 Service in societies and with organizations that are grappling with complicated economic, political and humanitarian problems, we believe, will help our students move beyond the noble impulse to treat the symptoms of these problems to taking the lead in forging solutions to them.
Bearing this in mind, the program we propose has four goals:
To develop civic and global-minded service and leadership opportunities for Rice University undergraduates.
To encourage and support undergraduate service and research abroad.
To enrich students' understanding of complex global issues.
To foster campus-wide discussion of global issues.
We believe this program not only responds creatively to current student interests but will also help fulfill future demand from academic departments. Students are already demonstrating a clear desire to engage in international service as a way to connect classroom learning to their own experiences -- many routinely request funding from the Community Involvement Center, Office of International Programs, Leadership Rice, and others in support of international service during break periods. Several academic departments and programs (Study of Women and Gender, Poverty Studies, and Hispanic Studies, for example) have or are considering the addition of a field or service experience as a major requirement. While Loewenstern fellowships will not be crafted to meet only the specific needs of certain academic programs, those administering the fellowships will work closely with faculty partners, as well as with the Chao Center and Americas Research Center, to support the university’s academic goals and to develop on-going relationships with international service partners.
Our expectation is that students that avail themselves of this opportunity will also integrate it into their overall academic experience. Whether the approach is to begin or continue research under the tutelage of a faculty member, expand their personal knowledge of and passion for community-based service, or to build international leadership capacities, Loewenstern Fellows will be better prepared to engage themselves in the global community.
1. David Leebron, A Vision for the 2nd Century, http://www.professor.rice.edu/professor/international.asp.
2. Award amounts and covered expenses will be subject to review by the Office of International Programs and/or the Center for Civic Engagement.
3. David Leebron, A Vision for the 2nd Century, http://www.professor.rice.edu/professor/international.asp.
4. Edgar Odell Lovett, “The Meaning of the New Institution,” in Edgar Odell Lovett and the Creation of Rice University, Houston: The Rice Historical Society (2000): 66. The university mission statement can be found at
http://www.explore.rice.edu/explore/Core_Documents1.asp?SnID=438662638.
5 John Dewey, Experience and Education, New York: Collier Books, 1938.