The Wayne and Claire Horton Scholarship is facilitated through the University Honors Program at Virginia Tech.  Each year, it provides assistance to outstanding honors students in the College of Engineering.  The purpose of the scholarship is twofold: 

1) To provide financial assistance for tuition, room, and board for the third and fourth years of study
2) To provide the students the resources to design and complete a major educational experience that gives focus      and direction to their undergraduate efforts.  

The central goal of the scholarship is to insure that, in addition to the outstanding education offered by the College of Engineering, the Horton Scholars will obtain significant and organized study in the humanities and the social sciences.  The Horton Scholar graduate will be broadly knowledgeable of world affairs, the social and political issues of the time, and have an appreciation of language and the arts.

The application process is rigorous.  The applicants must assess the future direction of their lives and plan the events that will add significant value to their college education.  This must be done with the assistance of a faculty mentor.  Application is made through the development of a portfolio.  The portfolio is a collection of the work and ideas of the student and, properly done, should provide the selection committees with a portrait of the applicant.  The portfolio for the Horton Honors Scholars remains a work-in-progress until the Scholar graduates.  In addition to other personal documents, the portfolio must include a proposal that:

1) Requires international travel
2) Demonstrates an awareness and knowledge of cultural and social differences
3) Attempts a project of meaning to both the student and the host country
4) Develops a program to internationalize the engineering education of the student

The selection of the winner of the Horton Honors Scholarship is a three-stage process:  judging the portfolios, holding preliminary interviews, and holding final interviews.

My portfolio can be viewed here

As previously noted, the portfolio is a work-in-progress until graduation.  As such, my proposal has significantly changed since being selected as the 2007 Horton Scholar.  I now plan to travel to Dalian from June through August of 2008 to attend a language and culture immersion program at Liaoning Normal University.  I will then travel to Shanghai where I will intern with General Electric in their Advanced Technology Operations Division.

[The Horton Scholarship is named after its benefactors, Wayne and Claire Horton.  Wayne Horton is a graduate of Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering.  Claire Horton is an anthropology professor who taught at Marshall University.  They currently reside in Huntington, West Virginia]