CONWAY — Hendrix College has received the Institute of International Education 2012 Andrew Heiskell Award for International Partnerships for the college’s leadership role in the development of the Rwanda Presidential Scholars Program.
The college also will be featured by the Institute of International Education as a “best practice” in international education.
Hendrix College, in partnership with the William J. Clinton Foundation, leads a consortium of 18 colleges and universities in eight states that works with the Rwanda Ministry of Education to provide four-year, undergraduate scholarships to Rwanda residents who study science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The Education Ministry picks up the tab for a student’s transportation, health insurance, room and board, incidental expenses, books, and winter and summer break allowances. Consortium members handle the tuition.
A total of 129 students enrolled as of the 2011 fall semester.
Hendrix, the project coordinator for the consortium, is principally responsible for obtaining scholarship commitments, overseeing the student selection process and administering the financial aspects of the program.
Each spring, a delegation of consortium representatives travels to Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, to select the next year’s participants from a pool of candidates created from Rwanda’s National Exam in Math and Science. The delegation administers a written test and interviews each applicant.
A second phase of the program allows U.S. students to study abroad and intern in Rwanda.
Eight other Arkansas colleges and universities are in the consortium. They are: Harding University in Searcy; Henderson State University in Arkadelphia; Lyon College in Batesville; Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia; Philander Smith College in Little Rock; the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville; the University of Arkansas at Little Rock; and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
Other consortium institutions are Belhaven University in Jackson, Miss.; Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, Ala.; Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss.; Morehouse College in Atlanta; Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas; Spelman College in Atlanta; the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn.; Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va.; and Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C.
Arkansas, Pages 19 on 03/11/2012