Transportation doctoral student J.P. O'Har has been named Georgia Tech's Presidential Fellow representive for 2011-12. J.P. is a second-year doctoral student who is studying asset management and climate change under the guidance of Drs. Meyer and Amekudzi. He is the recipient of a three-year NSF fellowship and currently serves as President of the ITE student chapter.
For more than forty years, Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress Fellows have been coming to Washington to learn about leadership and governance, to share their outstanding research and scholarship, to develop as future leaders of character, and to be inspired to careers in public service. This unique non-resident program offers seventy-five select undergraduate and graduate students from leading colleges and universities a year-long opportunity to study the U.S. Presidency, the public policymaking process, and our Chief Executive's relations with Congress, allies, the media, and the American public. The goal is to develop a new generation of national leaders committed to public service.
The Presidential Fellows are selected by their colleges and universities with guidance from the Center. Fellows travel to Washington, DC, twice a year to attend three-day conferences. At these policy workshops, Fellows discuss national issues with scholars of American government and international affairs, senior government officials, and leaders from the fields of business, media, public policy, and the military. Recent speakers have included Ben Bernanke, Laura Bush, Vint Cerf, Tom Ridge, and George Stephanopoulos, who is a alumnus of the Fellows Program. The centerpiece of the Fellowship is the student's original research paper on the Presidency or Congress. Each student identifies a faculty advisor on his or her home campus and is appointed a mentor from a relevent field by the Center. Students make presentations at each conference, are eligible to receive two awards, and compete for publication in an annual anthology, A Dialogue on Presidential Challenges and Leadership.
Fellows can come from any major or specialization, but they all have strong academic credentials, a demonstrated interest in the institutions of the Presidency and Congress, and a desire to make public service a part of their careers. Typically, Fellows are seniors in an undergraduate program, but advanced underclassmen or graduate students can also participate in the program. Alumni of the Fellows program are Capitol Hill and White House staffers, award-winning journalists, CEOs of corporations and non-profit organizations, senior military leaders, and university presidents and deans. Many of our Fellows have been awarded the prestigious Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright, Truman, and Gates Scholarships.
Additional information about the program can be found online by clicking here.