IU names 18 new Wells Scholars

Reece Clark, a freshman Herman B Wells Scholar and biology major, said he arrived on campus Sunday for Wells Welcome Week  and has been attending formal and informal events since.

But Clark finished out his whirlwind week by connecting with some of the scholars, old and new, for a pick-up game of ultimate Frisbee.

“It’s amazing just to hear people talk. Everyone is going places,” Clark said. “We are like a family already, and I know this is definitely going to open a lot of doors.”

The University inducted 17 incoming freshmen and one IU junior to the program, placing them among some 460 current Wells Scholars and alumni. The program was founded two decades ago in honor of former IU President and Chancellor Herman B Wells.

Wells Scholars are nominated by their high schools, the IU Office of Admissions or IU faculty and are selected for having demonstrated exceptional qualities of character, leadership and distinction both inside and outside the classroom. The recipients fill out an extensive application, which requires three essays and a résumé, and visit the Bloomington campus for interviews in December. The scholars are then selected by a committee of IU professors and faculty.

“We want to attract students whose characteristics remind us of Herman B Wells,” Wells Scholar Program Director Tim Londergan said. “They demonstrate academic excellence, proven leadership and a commitment to the life of their community.”

Incoming freshmen Wells Scholars are granted full tuition, including course-related fees, and a living stipend for four years of undergraduate study on the Bloomington campus. Scholars may spend up to one of those years participating in one of IU’s study abroad programs.

Newly named scholars who are already students at IU can apply the scholarship to their remaining years on campus.

Scholars are also members of the Hutton Honors College and are granted special opportunities to take classes with distinguished guests and IU professors. Examples include a class on mind games with New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz and a class on international security issues in the 21st century with David Albright and British international security expert Lord Timothy Garden.

“The students we get could go anywhere,” Londergan said. “We are competing to get them to our University.”

Londergan said this year’s Wells Scholars will take a required freshman seminar for all scholars. Londergan will use his physics background to teach the fall seminar, “The Origin and History of the Universe,” and business professor Tim Lemper will teach the spring seminar, “Morality and Law in Utopia.”

To remain a scholar, students must maintain a minimum 3.4 GPA and take at least 12 credit hours per semester.

A press release announcing the new scholars also stated that Wells Scholars have gone on to win more than 60 national and international scholarships, fellowships and grants, such as the Rhodes, which brings students from around the world to the University of Oxford, and the Fulbright, which provides grants to study, teach and conduct research to U.S. citizens going abroad and non-U.S. citizens traveling to the United States.

Wells, a beloved figure on IU’s campus, dedicated most of his life to the University and spearheaded the movement to keep the Bloomington campus green. He spent his undergraduate years at IU, returned as a faculty member and later became dean of the School of Business Administration. Most remember Wells for his 25 years served as IU President.

Friends and colleagues of Wells began fundraising for the scholarship fund in 1988, and on June 7, 1992, Wells’ 90th birthday, he was officially presented with the Wells Scholar Program in his name.

“The Wells Scholarship is the best thing any institution could have offered me. To be one in 18 is a very special honor,” Clark said. “It’s worth so much more than money.”

2011 Wells Scholars
Radhika Agarwal, Carmel, Ind.
Nandita Chittajallu, Indianapolis
Reece Clark, Noblesville, Ind.
Ian Clarke, Studio City, Calif.
Saleh ElHattab, Plainfield, Ind.
Casey Goodall, Wyoming, Ohio
David Gordon-Johnson, Cincinnati
Jonathan Hawkins, Charleston, Ill.
Nicholas Kolar, Fort Wayne
Grant Manon, Kendallville, Ind.
Alicia Nieves, Munster, Ind.
Marjorie Richards, Bloomington
Aaditya Shah, Munster, Ind.
Daniel Smedema, Indianapolis
Sandhya Sridhar, Memphis, Tenn.
Sarah TeKolste, Carmel, Ind.
Emma Winkler, Bloomington
Allison Winstel, Cincinnati