First Blount Undergraduate Initiative Class to Graduate at UA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – When The University of Alabama’s privately endowed Blount Undergraduate Initiative began four years ago, it was touted as an ambitious program that would create a community of undergraduate scholars and be a benchmark for academic excellence at the Capstone.

At UA commencement ceremonies on May 16, the University will graduate the Initiative’s first class with 25 percent of the class being accepted to either medical school or law school and 35 percent planning to enter graduate school. Blount students have been accepted by some of the nation’s top graduate institutions including Yale, University of Virginia, Georgetown, Columbia, and New York University.

The ranks of Blount seniors includes a member of the 2002 and 2003 USA Today All-Academic Team; three recipients of the Outstanding Senior Award given by the University of Alabama National Alumni Association; two nominees for the prestigious national Rhodes Scholarship; 12 members of Phi Beta Kappa honor society, the nation’s most prestigious honor society in the liberal arts; and multiple members in UA’s top honor societies including the Anderson Society, Mortar Board, and Omicron Delta Kappa.

The Blount Undergraduate Initiative was established with a $14 million private endowment provided by 27 Alabamians including the late Winton Blount of Montgomery, his wife Carolyn Blount and the Blount Foundation. It is a special four-year program designed to give students the best of a small liberal arts college experience as well as the advantages of a comprehensive public university.

Interdisciplinary seminars in the program are intended to broaden students’ perspectives on the world and help them develop superior critical thinking skills. The program includes a residential freshmen year, a study abroad option, a public service component, and a senior Capstone Course in which students are asked to prepare a thesis on their personal world view.

Some 101 students began as freshmen in the Blount Undergraduate Initiative in 1999, with an average ACT score of 29. This year, 57 will graduate from the program, reflecting a retention rate similar to the University as a whole. Of the 44 students who did not remain in the program, approximately half left the University and half transferred to other divisions for the University. The Blount Initiative is open only to students majoring in the College of Arts and Sciences.

“The curriculum for the Blount Undergraduate Initiative is challenging but also rewarding,” said Dr. Joe Hornsby, UA associate professor of English and director of the program. “It requires students to rethink their assumptions about their world and themselves.

“For the inaugural class of Blount students, the curriculum was also an adventure,” Hornsby said. “They were testing it, helping fine tune it for the classes that succeed them. I’m pleased to see that a large number of our inaugural class saw the adventure to the end and are graduating and going on to further their studies. The program has been enriched by this first class, and I think the program has also enriched their University experience.”

Blount Scholar Robin Preussel of Huntsville will be attending Yale School of Law, having been accepted to 11 law schools throughout the nation, with full scholarships to the University of Virginia School of Law and New York University School of Law.

Preussel, who turned down Tulane University, Emory University, and Princeton to attend The University of Alabama, said that the Blount Undergraduate Initiative courses exposed her to many more concepts and ideas and required her to think more deeply than a typical college course might.

“The Blount courses provided a forum for discussion. This was one of the most important aspects of my undergraduate career. The foundation courses are interdisciplinary in nature; they pull ideas from science, math, the social sciences, philosophy, foreign cultures and anywhere else and integrate them into the discussion of a topic. Because the classes were discussion format, you’re forced to consider a broad range of ideas, to present your views, and to defend them. This definitely gets you thinking. Then, when you have to put those thoughts down on paper, it’s easier,” said Preussel, who is triple majoring in international studies, Spanish, and philosophy.

After being accepted at Harvard, Justin Brasfield of Jasper chose The University of Alabama and the Blount Undergraduate Initiative for his undergraduate career. He will graduate this month with a major in economics in the College of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded a graduate fellowship to pursue a master’s degree in finance in UA’s College of Commerce and Business Administration.

In the Blount Initiative, Brasfield studied the philosophy of Nietzsche, Russian literature and philosophy, and, in the Capstone Course taken by all seniors, world views and personal possibilities.

“Classes in the Blount Undergraduate Initiative offer a little different atmosphere. The courses are custom designed by faculty members based on their interest and expertise, so you actually become involved in their intellectual pursuits. Rather than teachers imparting information, students and faculty discuss the ideas being presented. The courses can be demanding, but there is an interaction between students and teacher that make them especially interesting,” said Brasfield.

Graduating senior Sarah Adair’s undergraduate research with Dr. Guy Caldwell, associate professor of biology, resulted in the lab receiving significant grants from the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation and the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Adair plans to continue her research on the disease for another year before entering medical school and pursuing medical research. Adair, a native of Hartselle, was recognized two years in a row for her work by USA Today as a USA Today Academic All-American third team member in 2002 and a first team member in 2003.

“Coming from a science background, the Blount Undergraduate Initiative offered me a wonderful experience. If I had just studied in my major, microbiology, I would not have gotten the broad exposure to the liberal arts, to a variety of classes or the opportunity to study topics in other areas so intensely,” said Adair.

In the Blount Undergraduate Initiative, Adair took courses that examined such areas as cooking and culture and historical figures of peace such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. “While the reading list was something of a challenge, the breadth and depth of the ideas presented provided me with a lot of opportunity to explore and discover things. And meeting professors from wide backgrounds, instead of just in the lab, presented me with many other perspectives that I wouldn’t have otherwise gotten, had I studied in just my major area. It was such a good collection of faculty, and sustaining those relationships over four years was wonderful,” she said.

“The Blount Undergraduate Initiative has helped to create an environment in which students learn from one another and get to see faculty creating new and ambitious courses. The Initiative has placed a premium on exploring new combinations of knowledge and inquiry. I’m especially impressed by the way the program has fostered exciting dialog in the classroom that encompasses both the sciences and humanities. Clearly the students have absorbed the intellectual excitement of these exchanges between professor and student,” said Dr. Hank Lazer, UA assistant vice president for undergraduate programs and services.

Only 100 freshmen are accepted to the program each year. Acceptance rates have ranged from 40 to 67 percent of students applying. The average ACT score of all students accepted into the program is 28. Students are accepted following an application process that includes written essays and a daylong interview at the University.

There are a total of 325 students in the Blount Initiative representing 65 Alabama communities and 13 states.

The College of Arts and Sciences is UA’s largest division and the state’s largest liberal arts college with more than 25 departments and programs, 350 faculty, and 6,600 students.

The Blount Undergraduate Initiative
Blount Scholars
Graduating Class of 2003
College of Arts and Sciences
The University of Alabama

• SARAH ADAIR, Hartselle, AL
• SHELLIE C. ALDRIDGE, Hopkinsville, KY
• THOMAS BATTLES, Trussville, AL
• RACHEL BEARDSLEY, Alberta, AL
• JOHN PAUL BEVEL, Homewood, AL
• SHARELL M. BINDOM, Baton Rouge, LA
• CALEB TAYLOR BOYD, Brent, AL
• DAVID BRANTNER, Montgomery, AL
• JUSTIN BRASFIELD, Jasper, AL
• NATHAN BRUNER, Huntsville, AL
• HANNAH BUCHANAN, Arab, AL
• JUSTIN CAMPBELL, Marietta, GA
• GAYLAN CILLO, Robertsdale, AL
• KELLY CLAVERIE, Metairie, LA
• CHRISTIN COLLIER, Rainbow City, AL
• CALEB CONNOR, Tallahassee, FL
• MATTHEW CYBULSKY, Birmingham, AL
• KIMBERLY DAVIS, Ashville, AL
• SHARON MARIE DAVIS, Mobile, AL
• CARRIE FINCH, Spanish Fort, AL
• BENJAMIN GROVER, Florence, AL
• ANDREW J. GRUNDHOEFER, Birmingham, AL
• JOHN WILLIAM HATAWAY, Jasper, AL
• ADRIENNE HUCKABEE, Hoover, AL
• MISTY LEE JAMES, Decatur, AL
• KRISTY MARIE KIRKLAND, Dothan, AL
• AMANDA KATE LEECH, Broussard, LA
• TODD MARTIN, Birmingham, AL
• JESSICA MCDUFFIE-MASSEY, Hartford, AL
• KATHERINE FAITH MCLURE, Vestavia Hills, AL
• JEREMY CLINT MOORE, Brent, AL
• ABBY ELIZABETH MORRIS, Hoover, AL
• MICHAEL BRADLEY MURRAY, Mobile, AL
• SAMANTHA MARIE MURRAY, Tuscaloosa, AL
• GINA RAE NEWSOM, Tiplersville, MS
• REBEKAH OLMSTEAD, Alexander City, AL
• FAITH OWENS, Cordova, AL
• JAMES RILEY PARKER, Scottsboro, AL
• EMILY ANN PAYTON, Birmingham, AL
• ROBIN PREUSSEL, Huntsville, AL
• MICHAEL PRICE, Dothan, AL
• ASHLEY RAGSDALE, Huntsville, AL
• DANIEL A. RAY, Decatur, AL
• JAMES ANDREW REED, Arab, AL
• ROBERT B. ROSEBERRY, Palm Harbor, FL
• THERESA RUMORE, Birmingham, AL
• DEBORAH T. SODEKE, Auburn, AL
• KYLE MASSEY STEPHENS, Pelham, AL
• KATHERINE IRENE TERRY, Huntsville, AL
• JOSHUA THOMPSON, Montgomery, AL
• ANDREW TODD, Piedmont, AL
• JOSEPH RYAN TURNER, Valley, AL
• APRIL WILSON, Prattville, AL
• GRANT WILSON, Jasper, AL
• MICHELE YARBROUGH, Huntsville, AL
• CARRIE VIRGINIA ZANDER, Dothan, AL
• PETER VON HERRMANN, Homewood, AL