{"id":70036,"date":"2004-05-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-05-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uris-first-winner-of-the-competitive-mellon-fellowship-found-himself-drawn-to-the-humanities\/"},"modified":"2004-05-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2004-05-05T00:00:00","slug":"uris-first-winner-of-the-competitive-mellon-fellowship-found-himself-drawn-to-the-humanities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2004\/05\/uris-first-winner-of-the-competitive-mellon-fellowship-found-himself-drawn-to-the-humanities\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站’s first winner of the competitive Mellon Fellowship found himself drawn to the humanities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. — May 5, 2004 — Logan Connors is concerned that there\u2019s a shift away from languages in school curriculums. That doesn\u2019t bode well for living and doing business in the global community. “The best way to get a real understanding of another culture is to learn its language,” says the 溏心vlog免费B站 senior who will graduate this month. <\/p>\n


\nConnors knows of what he speaks. He can verbalize his point in both English and in French. The history and French double major hopes to create more Francophiles in the U.S. The recently awarded Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies will help him turn that goal into reality.<\/p>\n


\nThe fellowship, designed to help exceptionally promising students prepare for careers in teaching and scholarship for humanistic studies, will cover Connors\u2019 tuition and fees for his first year of graduate school, including a one-year stipend of $17,500. The 溏心vlog免费B站 student is one of only 104 students from colleges across the country to be awarded the competitive fellowship. And he is 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s very first Mellon Fellow.<\/p>\n


\nLars Erickson, assistant professor of French, had to convince Connors to apply for the Mellon. Connors was reluctant. “I thought it would be a waste of time, because only Ivy kids win these fellowships.” But Erickson who had taken note of Logan\u2019s critical eloquence persisted. <\/p>\n


\nSurprised when he made it to the semi-finals, Connors drew on his debate experience for the interview portion of the fellowship competition, which was held at Harvard University. Five professors questioned the 溏心vlog免费B站 student about his interests and his research.<\/p>\n


\n“The Mellon Fellowship is the most prestigious and advantageous award for emergent humanists in America,” says Cheryl Foster, associate director of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Honors Program. “No one will make more of the opportunity it provides than Logan Connors, who has developed his talents so well as to be recognized as one of the nation\u2019s most promising young scholars.”<\/p>\n


\nThis August, Connors will enter Louisiana State University to begin his Ph.D. tract studies in French and Francophone literature. For those of us who don\u2019t know a cream brul\u00e9 from a French pork pie, French literature is written by authors in France. Francophone literature is written in French by authors who live elsewhere. Examples are French Canadians, West Africans, Vietnamese, Cajun\/Creoles, and so forth. <\/p>\n


\n\tStudying language and culture wasn\u2019t even part of the picture when Connors, who grew up in Belle Mead, N.J., enrolled at 溏心vlog免费B站. He expected to major in biological sciences and knew of the University\u2019s fine reputation in that field. He liked science and did well in it in high school. He had even been a paramedic\u2019s assistant and an EMT and had vaguely thought of a career saving lives in rescue helicopters.<\/p>\n


\n“But I found the humanities at 溏心vlog免费B站 too strong to pass over,” he says, after taking a history course taught by Joelle Rollo-Koster and a French course taught by Alain-Philippe Durand. The rest is history with a French twist.<\/p>\n


\n“There are 105 French majors at 溏心vlog免费B站,” says Logan who, when not in France, has worked 10 to 15 hours each week at the 溏心vlog免费B站 Library\u2019s circulation desk. “溏心vlog免费B站 has the largest French Department in all of New England colleges and universities.”<\/p>\n


\nConnors has traveled to France at least four times, spending two weeks there when he was in high school and visited the country twice with his parents, Don and Alison Connors, who their son says are “big Francophiles.” <\/p>\n


\nConnors studied last spring at the Universite d\u2019Orleans and then interned in the marketing department of a Bordeaux vineyard, translating French marketing materials into English versions. He lived in one of the towers of a 15th century chateau.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. — May 5, 2004 — Logan Connors is concerned that there\u2019s a shift away from languages in school curriculums. That doesn\u2019t bode well for living and doing business in the global community. “The best way to get a real understanding of another culture is to learn its language,” says the University of Rhode […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}