Brown Fellows Program announced at Centre

RELEASED: April 16, 2009

DANVILLE, KY—At the annual spring Centre College Board of Trustees meeting last week, the College announced its collaboration with the James Graham Brown Foundation to launch the Brown Fellows Program at Centre.

Beginning in the fall of 2009, 10 first-year students will be named Brown Fellows each year. Brown Fellows will receive scholarships covering tuition, room and board and will be provided four summer enrichment experiences, beginning the summer before their first year at Centre. The 2009 inaugural class of Brown Fellows will participate in a two-week trip to Panama to study leadership issues surrounding the expansion of the Panama Canal. Summer enrichment experiences in subsequent years will be organized around themes of service, research, international study and leadership.

Centre is the only private college in Kentucky selected for a Brown Fellows Program; the foundation will also initiate a Brown Fellows Program at the University of Louisville.

Says Richard Trollinger, vice president for college relations: "We at Centre are thrilled to partner with the James Graham Brown Foundation in offering the Brown Fellows Program to outstanding students who show exceptional promise of becoming leaders in their professions and in society. Solutions to the big problems start with bright and aspiring students who seek a rigorous education because they have dreams of making a difference. Those are the students we want to educate, and we are excited to be able to offer the opportunity to become a Brown Fellow to 10 of those students each year."

Last weekend, members of Centre's faculty and admission staff, as well as representatives of the Brown Foundation, participated in the selection process, meeting with a group of 25 outstanding candidates.

"We were thrilled with the students we met and interviewed," says J. Carey Thompson, vice president for enrollment and student planning services. "I'm sure the Brown Foundation staff would say the same. We met some of America's brightest and most talented young people."

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Consumers Digest ranks Centre No. 1 in educational value among all U.S. liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

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