serving the students of the University of North Carolina at Asheville
Volume 1, Number 4 Thursday, September 30, 1982
Pictured are the cast from the play, “A Merchant’s Tale”, from “The Canterbury Tales”. “A Merchant’s Tale”
was presented on Humanities Day to area high school seniors by the UNCA Drama Department.
Photo by David Pickett
Grad school aid available
By Elise Henshaw
Students interested in furthering
their education by attending
graduate school, should be aware of
the fact that there are various forms
of financial aid available.
Money is available for graduate
study in this country and abroad
through fellowships, scholarships,
and teaching assistantships.
Several UNCA faculty members
serve as advisors for some of the
more prestigious scholarship pro
grams. They emphasize their desire
to make students realize the oppor
tunities open to them for continuing
their education after graduation
from UNCA.
Dr. Guy Cooper, Associate Pro
fessor of classics, said, “There is a
great deal of money available from
individual universities in this coun
try.”
Cooper advises students consider
ing graduate study to fkst deter
mine the colleges and universities
that will best satisfy their needs. He
then advises them to write to the
chairman of the department of their
interest to request information on
applying to the graduate program.
Students should also request infor
mation on available fellowships,
teaching assistantships and any
other possible financial aid.
Cooper said he felt certain any
department head at UNCA would be
glad to assist a student in selecting
the universities or colleges that
would be best to contact for the stu
dent’s particular needs.
Dr. Peggy Downes, Assistant Pro
fessor of literature, said she ob
tained both her masters degree and
doctorate by utilizing fellowships
and teaching assistantships. There
are advantages to both. She said,
“You have a free ride with a
fellowship and more time to study,
but a teaching assistantship offers
invaluable experience.”
Downes emphasized three items
that are considered when a student
applies to graduate school: “grade
point average, G.R.E. [Graduate Re
quirement Exam] score, and strong
letters of recommendation.” She
said, “It is important to write in
telligent, well-organized letters and
write as often as you can without
making a pest of yourself. If you
can visit the campus, that’s best. If
you can’t make your face known,
make your voice Imown.”
If a decision must be made be
tween equally qualified candidates
for a scholarship, the one with the
greater visibility will usually have
the advantage.
The following scholarship com
petitions offer excellent oppor
tunities for graduate study. Addi
tional information on these .pro
grams is available from the pro
fessor listed with each.
Mellon Fellowships in the
Humanities are available to 100 to
125 “exceptionally promising
students.” These five year
fellowships provide $7,000 plus tui
tion and standard fees to the
graduate school for the first year.
Stipends are expected to increase by
$500 annually.
Winners may take their awards to
the graduate school of their choice in
the United States and Canada.
Any college senior or recent
graduate who is an American or
Canadian citizen, can present
evidence of outstanding academic
promise and wishes to begin
graduate work in preparation for a
career of teaching in a humanistic
field of study is eligible for con
sideration.
Contact Dr. Cooper in the classics
department by Oct. 15.
Harry S. Truman Scholarships
enable outstanding students to
Seniors
sample
Humanities
^By Jennifer Blalock
and Suzanne Booker
The second annual Senior
Humanities Day drew 193 students
from 10 area high schools to the
campus of UNCA. The aim of
Humanities Day, held on Sept. 23,
was to help students decide whether
to pursue a liberal arts education,
according to Olivia Jones, coor
dinator of the event.
“The program should whet their
appetites enough to find out what it
is like to major in some area of the
humanities,” Jones said.
Humanities Day briefly exposed the
students to the fields of art, classics,
drama, foreign language, history,
literature, music and philosophy.
UNCA introduced Humanities
Day last year in order to briefly ac
quaint high school students with
new areas of education, according to
Jones. This year’s program at
tracted three times as many
students as the 1981 Humanities
Day, Jones said.
Nearly one-third of the seniors
who attended last year enrolled at
UNCA [19 out of approximately 65].
Although Jones said that the
primary purpose of the evei^t was
not to recruit students, statistics in
dicate that it may boost enrollment
in the future.
Arnold Wengrow’s dramatic adap
tation of “The Merchant’s Tale,” by
Geoffrey Chaucer, attracted the
most attention, according to the stu
dent evaluation forms Jones re
ceived.
Wengrow is director of the Univer
sity Theater and associate professor
of drama. Julie Gillum and Michael
Manley played the leading roles in
the production.
Student evaluations also in
dicated that the music department’s
performance during lunch in the stu
dent center was well-received, accor
ding to Jones.
Marian Gouge and Gary Waddell,
vocalists, accompanied by Robert
Brown, guitarist, performed for the
students.
Kathy Crain, a student guide for
the day, said, “The students seemed
really interested.”
prepare for careers in public service.
Truman scholarships provide $5,000
annually for up to four years, two
years of undergraduate and two
years of graduate study. An appli
cant must be a full time student and
a junior.
The student must have a grade
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