The Paul H. Nitze
Scholars Program

FAQs

1. How is the name of the program pronounced?
2. Who should consider joining this program?
3. What does the program offer?
4. What are the obligations of the participating students?
5. What is the selection process?

How is the name of the program pronounced?

Okay, first things first.  The surname of Paul H. Nitze is pronounced NIT-zeh.  This is not the Nietzsche Scholars Program.  Those looking for such program are advised to look elsewhere--presumably starting with the nearest mountaintop.

Who should consider joining this program?

All students, regardless of their intended majors, who are excelling academically and who are willing to reflect on the philosophical, social, and ethical aspects of their specific fields of study should consider participation. The program attracts students with a passionate commitment to the communal enterprise of learning and a desire to extend their quest for knowledge into a commitment to the public good.  The Nitze Scholars Program is not a major and attracts students from every major, including double-majors.  The NSP also attracts students who play sports, are in plays, and who perform music.  The NSP aims to add value to the college experience, not to hijack it.

What does the Paul H. Nitze Scholars Program offer to participants?

Students accepted into the program will receive a scholarship of $3000 during each year of study in the program.  (Students are eligible for up to eight semesters of merit scholarship, and must achieve a 3.0 GPA in each semester in order to be eligible for St. Mary's merit scholarships.  Students who on independent grounds receive full tuition waivers from St. Mary’s due to, for example, an employment benefit from a family member, are not eligible for additional scholarship support, but are otherwise full participants in the Nitze Scholars Program.) 
Students are also eligible to participate, for no extra charge, in a one-to-two week international study tour (with only some meal costs paid by the student).

Nitze Scholars in a given year take a sequence of three seminars together, culminating in the study tour.

First Year
First Semester   All Nitze Scholars enroll in a Leadership Seminar, which also serves as the introduction to the program. Although its topic varies from year to year depending on the professor who teaches it, the underlying concerns remain the same. Students study how people create worldviews to make sense of their experiences and to gain control of their lives, and how these worldviews are modified and replaced by others. They investigate how leaders arise, how they interact with their communities, and how forms of leadership differ in different times, cultures, and disciplines of study.

Second Semester  The leadership seminar is followed in the second semester by a two-credit Leadership Tutorial.  This tutorial, led by the Director or Assistant Director of the Scholars Program, is organized around a series of visits by Paul H. Nitze Senior Fellows. Nitze Senior Fellows may be researchers whose work, because of its real-life implications or ethical stance, has found resonance in the public domain, or they may be public figures such as judges or political figures, who use their knowledge of society as leaders in national or international service. When Nitze Senior Fellows visit St. Mary's College, students in the program have opportunities to interact with them in both formal and informal settings, like at meals, or going kayaking.

Second Year
Fall or spring semester   Nitze Scholars take a seminar about leadership in an international context, which culminates with a one-to-two week study tour, paid for by the NSP (except for some meal costs).  Students will use the insights and skills they acquired in the Leadership Seminar to study political, social, or environmental issues in a particular region of the world. The professor who teaches the seminar will focus on the relationship between that region and the US, invite comparisons, and encourage students to discuss local issues from a global perspective.

After the second year in the NSP, as students are focusing on advanced courses in their majors and many of them studying abroad for a semester (St. Mary's has a variety of programs abroad, for students with different tastes and majors), the Nitze Scholars still participate in a number of special activities on and off campus.  On-campus opportunities include special meals with visiting speakers, as well as events of a more social nature.  (An example of this latter type is the annual Bonfire of the Inanities, held each fall, in which each Nitze Scholar brings to a bonfire some item or image of an item which that student finds to be inane, describes to others what he or she finds to be inane about it, and then burns it.)  Off-campus outings include trips to D.C. and Baltimore to see plays, concerts, and museums.  Whenever the Cirque du Soleil is in the area, Nitze Scholars are to be found under the tent.

What are the obligations of participating students to the Paul H. Nitze Scholars Program?

In addition to participating in the two seminars and the tutorial, students develop a portfolio in which the student reflects on his or her education, on his or her philosophy of leadership and service, and on how that philosophy is exemplified (or not) by the student's leadership and service activities.

Like all St. Mary's students, Nitze Scholars are encouraged to participate in leadership and service activities on or off campus. Their participation can take many different forms, from involvement in student government to participation in the artistic life on campus, from writing for the college newspaper to tutoring children in local schools. In addition, Nitze Scholars are expected to use what they have learned in their seminars, tutorials, and through their study tour abroad to reflect on their leadership and service activities, to put them in context and to develop a leadership/service philosophy. Under the guidance of the director or assistant director of the Program, students will work on a portfolio that they present to the Nitze Scholars Committee during their final semester at St. Mary's and that will be evaluated by the members of the committee. I n evaluating a portfolio, the committee will consider (1) a student's documented ability to work both independently and collaboratively towards the common good, (2) the demonstrated depth of reflection, and (3) the quality of its articulation in a coherent leadership/service philosophy.

What is the Selection Process?

The NSP is a dual-entry program, which means that some students are accepted each year during the time they are applying to St. Mary's (about a dozen each year), and some are accepted each year in their second semester at St. Mary's, to begin the program in their second year at St. Mary's.  (The requirements of the program can be completed in three years.)

The Nitze Scholarship and the Nitze study tour are available to all Nitze Scholars regardless of how they entered the program.

The selection process for those who are in the midst of applying to St. Mary's begins in mid-January, with the Office of Admissions screening all applications for students with records of outstanding academic and co-curricular achievement. The strongest applications are forwarded to the Nitze Scholars Committee, which winnows the list to about 100-120 who are invited to apply.  Letters of invitation go out in the latter half of January, with the application deadline in late February.  Each applicant has in interview, either in person or by telephone.  Acceptance decisions are made in March, with notifications going out later that month.

The selection process for those who are in their second semester at St. Mary's begins in March with nominations sent from faculty members to the Nitze Scholars Committee, and with academic records from the first semester provided to the committee by the Office of the Registrar.  E-mailed invitations to apply go out to about 70 students just prior to spring break, with the application deadline in early April.  Interviews are conducted later that month.  Acceptance decisions are made in early May, before final examinations begin.