The Clark Foundation’s signature Clark Scholars Program (CSP) fulfills the desire of its founder, A. James Clark, to create opportunities for aspiring engineering students to access a high-quality education. Expanding on Mr. Clark’s commitment to civic responsibility and business leadership, the CSP has always been more than a scholarship. The core program components – including business courses, leadership development and community service – were designed around Mr. Clark’s values, aiming to produce well-rounded graduates who are ready to excel professionally, become leaders and innovators in the field and contribute to their communities.
The CSP currently operates at 11 universities, both state schools and private institutions. Its Scholars, currently numbering more than 475 annually, benefit from the CSP’s cohort model which creates close-knit communities both on individual campuses and across schools when the students connect at CSP events. At the heart of the Scholar experience at each university are dedicated faculty and staff who serve as CSP leaders and bring Mr. Clark’s values to life on their respective campuses.
Believing that these leaders can best support their Scholars if they are also supported, the Clark Foundation has actively fostered a network that is encouraged to share successes, challenges and lessons learned in order to improve each university’s academic and programmatic experiences. The program leaders work closely with each other and the Foundation to guide Scholars, establish and communicate program goals, and convey a vision and set of principles that honor the legacy of Mr. Clark. “Every pillar of our program is based on Mr. Clark’s values,” said Dr. Lauren Griggs, Director of the Clark Scholars Program and the Multicultural Engineering Program at Penn State.
“They are our voices on campus, so the more they are familiar with the vision of Mr. Clark, the better the success of the program. Once they understand the ‘why,’ they can think creatively about opportunities on campus that fit the program,” said Natalie Grandison, the Foundation’s Director of Higher Education & Strategy. Grandison encourages program leaders to be well-versed in the Foundation’s CSP Guiding Principles and gift agreements with their respective universities so they understand their role in guiding and mentoring Clark Scholars.
This network also fulfills Mr. Clark’s belief in the power and importance of strong leadership. “This wonderful cohort of program leaders has been an incredible example of true leadership in the way my dad envisioned,” said his daughter and Foundation Chair Courtney Clark Pastrick. “Because they understand my dad’s values and the program’s mission, they are examples of great leaders and teach our students how to be leaders.”
Building a Student-Focused Learning Community
After learning about the “why” of the CSP, program leaders then focus on the “how” of successfully shaping the program – where their network plays a crucial role. The Foundation was intentional about fostering a collaborative community of program leaders that can rely on one another as they work towards the shared purpose of ensuring their Scholars succeed.
“We’re working for a program supported by a foundation that isn’t directly tied to our schools. We’re in a position that’s not 100% rooted in our universities, so sometimes we each feel like we’re a bit on our own islands,” said Alida McKee, Director of the Clark Scholars Program at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. “It’s so helpful to have colleagues at other institutions who literally have your same job with the same mission and goals and to hear about what they’ve been able to accomplish at their schools. You can take that information back to your own institutions to advocate or push for more.”
The CSP program leaders’ sense of community is grounded in their annual gathering convened by the Foundation, where they have time to learn from each other both through formal presentations and informal conversations. The gathering focuses on Scholar needs and program leadership priorities rather than a top-down agenda determined by the Foundation. For example, Grandison said, when several program leaders expressed an interest in strengthening Scholar financial literacy, the Foundation convened a smaller group to discuss how they could most effectively achieve this goal.
Beyond the annual meeting, CSP leaders maintain open lines of communication with one another, recognizing that they have a reliable group of people they can turn to as new challenges or opportunities arise. “I value the safety of the network. It’s a very special opportunity to have a professional development space where you can enhance your skill sets but also be vulnerable and share personal growth,” said Dr. Griggs.
Grandison said the connection among CSP leaders transcends differences among the schools, including size, location and administrative processes. Program leaders treat each other as equals, knowing they have partners on 10 other campuses who are also supporting Scholars with financial need who may be first-generation college students or are underrepresented in engineering programs. “There’s humility there, and trust that this is a safe space to discuss what’s not working,” Grandison said.
Program leaders say that the Foundation has been very intentional in learning about both the program implementation at each school and the challenges facing the staff so that they can be referred to other leaders who have faced similar obstacles. Grandison described this role as a “matchmaker” among CSP leaders, encouraging them to talk to each other about issues such as working effectively with university financial aid offices so Scholars can navigate that process or obtaining permission for Scholars to enroll in certain business courses. “Sharing these solutions helps students’ success because they can then say to university leadership, ‘This is what I want to do and here’s how I will do it.’ When they come with a fully baked plan, the dean is more amenable to listening about how to make a change on campus,” Grandison said.
CSP leaders also share insights on their respective programming initiatives that enhance Scholars’ experiences, such as study abroad and summer academic or professional opportunities. At Stevens, McKee created the Cultural Passport program for her Clark Scholars. Scholars use CSP funding to organize activities together in the New York City area such as Broadway shows and sporting events, giving them leadership experience and time together away from campus. McKee shared how she developed the program with the CSP staff at Georgia Tech, who used those insights to implement their own version of the Cultural Passport program.
The Foundation also keeps a database of materials and initiatives developed by all the schools, as well as foundational materials about Mr. Clark and the CSP, as a resource for all program leaders across the 11 campuses. “It’s there for them at midnight when they get an idea and want to look up whether anybody else has done financial wellness,” Grandison said.
As Griggs noted, this community “allows the program leadership to feel seen because there are so many things that we uniquely experience at our various institutions. It’s a relief to talk to someone else who understands the impact we’re making and the challenges we’re having. I tell the Scholars you need to look for your own personal board of directors. Well, we’re now on each others’ boards of directors.”
The Program Leadership Network Evolves
In 2023, the Clark Foundation announced that the University of Maryland will continue to facilitate learning and collaboration among the universities after the Foundation’s sunset at the end of 2025. Through the newly established Clark Scholars Program Network, UMD will provide ongoing opportunities for program leaders to actively connect to one another and discuss challenges and ideas. “The Foundation will sunset but we will have [helped] lay the foundation for program leaders to continue our vision for this program,” Grandison said.
Having witnessed the success of the CSP thus far, program leaders are confident that the CSP will continue to thrive in the future. “I think that universities are able to see how the cohort model used by the CSP is successful in both retaining and graduating students, and in fostering an immense sense of pride in being a Clark Scholar. Clark Scholars feel supported all around by both the CSP and their home institutions. I think the CSP has been set up to evolve as the needs of the Scholars evolve, and as higher education as a whole evolves,” McKee said. “My hope is that in the future there will be even more collaboration between universities and opportunities to connect Scholars and alumni in person. I have seen how much the program has grown, and how much more collaboration there has been between program leaders. I am confident that this will continue in the future, especially with program leaders who are so dedicated to the mission of the program and to the students.”
Grandison also shared the Foundation’s belief that the CSP may have an outsized impact upon the field of higher education as current program leaders are likely to move into positions of university leadership. As directors and faculty advisors move into these roles, they may be able to incorporate the values, lessons learned and best practices shared within the program leader network into other processes and programs at their universities positively affecting students writ large across campuses.
Even as the Foundation sunsets, its intentional approach to conveying the program’s values to program leaders means that they, in turn, will be able to impress those values upon future Clark Scholars. In doing so, program leaders and the Foundation aim to foster their Scholars’ lifelong connection to the program and other Clark Scholars. “The hope for the future is that these Scholars at different universities feel a deep sense of kinship regardless of whether they’ve met in person,” Grandison said. “They’ll know they have values in common and have shared a core educational and interpersonal experience regardless of which campus they graduated from.”
