Four Gallatin Undergrads Awarded with Reynolds Scholarships
Four Gallatin sophomore students were recently chosen as NYU’s 2007-2008 Reynolds Scholars in Social Entrepreneurship: Carla Fernandez (BA ’09), Joe Taranto (BA ’09), Isaac Rowlett (BA ’09), and Annie Myers (BA ’09).
This year, there were only ten Reynolds Scholarships awarded to undergraduate students throughout NYU, and the overwhelming presence of Gallatin students among the awardees is impressive. David Moore, Gallatin’s interim associate dean, remarked, “Given the fact that Gallatin houses well under ten percent of NYU’s undergraduate student population and yet ended up with fully forty percent of the Reynolds seats, this accomplishment is pretty amazing! I extend my deepest congratulations to the students, and my profound thanks to Gallatin Class Adviser Justin Lorts, who organized the selection and preparation of our candidates.”
It should also be noted that eight Gallatin undergrads made it all the way into the final round of 30 candidates for the selection of the ten Reynolds Scholars.
What began with a $10 million donation from the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation has become an innovative scholarship program that will support and nurture the next generation of public service leaders at NYU. The Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Program in Social Entrepreneurship, which is administered by NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and overseen by the Office of the Provost, offers undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships to students who are tackling society’s most challenging problems with vision, passion, dedication, and integrity.
The program, which began in 2006, is designed “to equip the next generation of social entrepreneurs with the skills, resources, and networking opportunities needed to help solve society’s most intractable problems.” The undergraduate scholarship provides up to $40,000 for students’ final two years of full-time study, as well as a stipend for a summer internship between the junior and senior years. Awardees take a required course on social entrepreneurship and public service through the Wagner School, and also gain access to cocurricular opportunities such as a speaker series; receptions on pertinent issues; and research, networking, and development opportunities.
Social entrepreneurship is a relatively new term that has emerged in the lexicon in the past 15 years, and definitions can vary. For the purpose of the Reynolds Program, NYU has defined social entrepreneurship as “a form of leadership that maximizes the social return on public service efforts while fundamentally and permanently changing the way problems are addressed on a global scale.” Social entrepreneurs exist in the private, nonprofit, and government sectors and their job functions are varied; the Reynolds Program uses such examples as documentary filmmakers, journalists, and doctors. The range of social entrepreneurs’ interests and creative approaches is also perfectly exemplified by Gallatin’s student awardees.
Carla Fernandez is concentrating in Sustainable Consumption and Community Development. She is dedicated to mobilizing both individuals and institutions to exercise their purchasing power in an informed and conscientious way. To that end, she has worked with various fair trade and sustainable development groups at NYU and served as the primary organizer of United for Change: the Social Justice Conference at NYU in 2006.
Joseph Taranto is concentrating in Immigration and Public Policy with a focus on language, education, and social inequality. He has worked extensively with numerous immigrant rights and labor organizations throughout New York City and plans to develop broad-based, collaborative public policy initiatives that, through direct engagement of the community, would seek to create and advocate for legislation that improves the lives of immigrants and promotes their integration into society.
Isaac Rowlett is concentrating in Genocide, Human Rights and Conflict Resolution. He is particularly interested in addressing the ongoing genocide taking place in Sudan. He is the founder of the NYU chapter of STAND (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur) and helped organize and manage the three-week long Sudan Freedom Walk from New York to Washington, D.C.
Annie Myers is concentrating in Agricultural Economics and Policy. She hopes to raise consciousness of the value and plight of small scale agriculture in both the U.S. and Latin America. She has worked with numerous agricultural and fair trade organizations in the New York City area, and has worked on an organic farm in Umbria, Italy.
“Social entrepreneurship and Gallatin seem a natural fit,” states Gabriel Brodbar, director of the Reynolds Program. “Part of the program’s notion of social entrepreneurship is that it is a meta-profession under which many professions can fall. Social entrepreneurs do not limit themselves to the ideas, content areas, or skill sets of a few disciplines. Rather, they draw on anything and everything that can help them realize pattern-breaking change of social importance in ways that are sustainable and scalable. As such, all NYU Reynolds fellows and scholars will be utilizing and adding to the resources offered by many schools across the University. It really resonates with Gallatin’s approach.”
To learn more, visit www.nyu.edu/reynolds.