ILSalumni events

"A College Within the University"

The Ford Scholars Come To Town!

                            

The era was the early 1950’s. A sense of nationalism was spreading around the United States as the government drafted young men into the armed forces to serve our country in the Korean War. However, some of the young men, and later women of that generation instead got a special academic offer to go to college at the age of 15 or 16. These promising young students were invited to prematurely embark on an academic career through the Ford Scholars Program. This program worked with several fine universities such as our beloved University of Wisconsin-Madison to foster these young protégées. This program was implemented primarily to ensure that our country had a sufficient cohort of collegiate graduates in the workforce during a time of war in order to move our nation’s society and economic market into a postindustrial epoch.

On October 11th, 2009, a mélange of ILS students, administrators, and faculty got the chance to interact with these very active scholars. Meeting with these scholars was a unique experience as they shared the stories, experience, and advice they had gained from the rare opportunity they took advantage of many years ago. One of the scholars, Louise Trubek, a Clinical Professor Emerita at our own UW-Madison Law School said, “The Ford program gave me a unique perspective on myself…being able to get a head start on my academic career helped me develop a sense of myself and where I wanted to go in life.” Another scholar, David Schoenbaum, who now resides in Iowa City, Iowa advised that, “All future college graduates should consider taking some time off of school. They should go travel the world or do something that interests them outside of an academic curriculum so that they may broaden their horizons and discover new things about themselves and the world…after all, by the time you graduate you will have been sitting on your butt for about 15 years.”

Absorbing what these scholars had to say in reflection of their years in the Ford Scholars Program made it clear that a liberal education such as the one that is offered by the ILS department here is more than worth pursuing. With its wide array of subjects ILS can play an essential part in aiding students to realize their life’s aspirations as well as open doors to a plethora of opportunities that will guide students in their career goals and teach them how to view the world from countless perspectives. Therefore, on a final note, if we can learn from the expert opinions of the Ford Scholars, and take command of what is at hand for every student on this campus through the Integrated Liberal Studies education, then there is no doubt that this generation can do as the Ford Scholars’ generation did, and usher in a new era of brighter, more well-rounded individuals.

Note: Our very own ILS Professor Michael Shank has been named the Herbert and Evelyn Howe Bascom Professor in Integrated Liberal Studies for 2008-2010. The professorship honors contributions Evelyn Howe, emerita lecturer in ILS, and Herbert Howe, professor emeritus of classics and ILS, made to the Ford Scholars Program in the 1950’s, to ILS, and to the undergraduate education at UW-Madison. ILS gives the award every other year to individuals who make ongoing contributions to ILS and who have enhanced student learning.