2008 Woodie Awards
A Year in Review for the Graduate Fellowship Program
Ira Ginsberg
Issue date: 5/16/05 Section: Features
- Page 1 of 4 next >
At the beginning of this year, eleven Yeshiva graduates took up their positions as the participants in Yeshiva's newly minted Graduate Fellowship Program. Devised by President Richard M. Joel, the program placed the fellows in departments around the Wilf and Beren campuses and sought to teach them some valuable skills before beginning their professional careers. Aiming to create future leaders in the Jewish community, these fellows were put in a position to learn directly from a mentor, usually the senior department official.
With the program's first year nearly completed, and with next year's fellows already selected, Yeshiva officials have worked together to build off this year's successes and to correct its failures. The responsibility of running this new program was placed on Dr. Sheldon R. Gelman, the Dean of the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, and on Dr. Morton Lowengrub, the Vice President for Academic Affairs.
According to Dr. Gelman, "Everyone is very happy with the way things have gone." While Dr. Gelman admits that some more careful planning before initiating the program would have been helpful, he stated that "I think that the majority of the eleven fellows have had a meaningful experience and all of them have grown and developed as individuals, professionals, and future leaders in the community."
On a day to day basis, each fellow works as a Yeshiva employee in a sepcific department. The exact role each person plays varies based on the office they are assigned to. As a group, however, the fellows attend regularly held seminars and must meet certain academic requirements. One of the focal points for this year's fellows was an analysis of liberal arts colleges in general, and specifically their own Yeshiva education. Their work was based largely on the book "The University," by former Harvard Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Henry Rosovsky. The fellows also had the opportunity to hear from Dr. Rosovsky himself at one of their weekly seminars.
With the program's first year nearly completed, and with next year's fellows already selected, Yeshiva officials have worked together to build off this year's successes and to correct its failures. The responsibility of running this new program was placed on Dr. Sheldon R. Gelman, the Dean of the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, and on Dr. Morton Lowengrub, the Vice President for Academic Affairs.
According to Dr. Gelman, "Everyone is very happy with the way things have gone." While Dr. Gelman admits that some more careful planning before initiating the program would have been helpful, he stated that "I think that the majority of the eleven fellows have had a meaningful experience and all of them have grown and developed as individuals, professionals, and future leaders in the community."
On a day to day basis, each fellow works as a Yeshiva employee in a sepcific department. The exact role each person plays varies based on the office they are assigned to. As a group, however, the fellows attend regularly held seminars and must meet certain academic requirements. One of the focal points for this year's fellows was an analysis of liberal arts colleges in general, and specifically their own Yeshiva education. Their work was based largely on the book "The University," by former Harvard Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Henry Rosovsky. The fellows also had the opportunity to hear from Dr. Rosovsky himself at one of their weekly seminars.