The School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies is proud to support its students. Every year, a select number of students are chosen to receive scholarships and awards that highlight their dedication and achievement within the school. These students have made significant impacts on their communities and studies, and are dedicated to furthering their education.
Meet a few of this year’s winners:
Avery Benesch
Christine Sato Memorial Scholarship in Philosophy
How is this scholarship important to you?
It is important to me because of the emphasis it places on volunteer work and community service. I believe serving others in our community is crucial to living a well-rounded life, and some of the greatest experiences I’ve had in my life have happened while I was doing volunteer work.
Why did you choose to study with SHPRS?
I chose to study with SHPRS because of how much I enjoy studying philosophy and because I felt the school would prepare me to have a positive impact on society. Philosophy is a discipline that interests me because it focuses on difficult questions that many people shy away from. We as a society need to address difficult questions in order to take steps forward, and studying them now as an undergraduate will prepare me to positively impact society during my career after I graduate.
How does winning this scholarship help you move towards your goals?
This scholarship will help me pay for school, which will allow me to focus more on my classes and worry less about how I will pay for everything. Focusing in classes will in turn help me prepare for graduate school, and it will help me maintain a higher GPA so I can graduate with academic excellence.
Alexander Brittain
Philosophy Essay Contest
How is this scholarship important to you?
Winning the Philosophy Essay Contest is really important to me because, when I was a freshman, I made it my goal to win the award before I graduated. I really wanted to win the essay contest because I figured it was some sort of indication of progress. I knew almost nothing about philosophy when I declared it as my major. So receiving some recognition for writing a good philosophical essay would meant that I had learned something about what I had set out to learn. It may seem like a small thing, but it has meant a lot to me. It is also really an honor to receive some recognition from the faculty and staff who have all worked really hard to make this possible.
Why did you choose to study with SHPRS?
I dropped out of a university when I was 19 and I had no real plan to go back. I spent my early 20s away from school and I eventually decided that I genuinely wanted to study something I was interested in. In my time away from school I had a lot of different jobs, but one of the most interesting ones was working a graveyard shift as a mail handler for the United States Postal Service. It turned out that the person I was assigned to work with had studied philosophy as an undergrad before going on to become a mortician. His name was Micah. You can only imagine the sort of conversations we had. That summer I spend a lot of time hanging out with him at bars, or on his back patio and we would talk about philosophy. I had no real idea where anything he was talking about came from, but it was interesting and he would humor some of my attempts to argue with him. He even told me, if I ever went back to school, I should check out philosophy. "I think it might be for you," he said. Micah passed away in a motorcycle accident in the summer of 2013 shortly after leaving my house.
In the aftermath of his death I began thinking intensely about the things we had talked about during all the time we had spent together. I realized I wanted to do something more with my life than just stick with the job I had and potentially miss out on an opportunity to do something remarkable. Luckily, some family friends offered me an airplane ticket to anywhere in the world. I worked for another year to save up money for my trip and then I put my life in a backpack and flew to Spain. The truth is that I had no real inclination of returning home. I genuinely thought I may be leaving home for the very last time. Right before I left for Spain, I began applying to universities, including ASU. I thought there was some long shot of getting back into school and if I did get into some school, then I would have a reason to go back. I did not know what I would study, but I knew I wanted to go back to school.
A couple weeks into my trip, I was sitting alone in a dark room in Lisbon and I got an email from ASU. I had been accepted. It is hard to communicate how surprised and grateful I was that I had been accepted. I really feel like ASU decided to take a chance on me even though I really did not deserve it. I remember I had to pick a major right then and there. Micah's death was still very much on my mind and I saw philosophy pop up in the scroll menu. I decided that it was worth a shot. I think my reasoning was something like this. I wanted to honor the remarkable life he had lived and I thought studying something he had loved was a good way to do that. That was my initial motivation. Three years later and one philosophy essay later, I feel like my motivation has been transformed in some sense. I am not studying philosophy for to honor him anymore. I am doing it for myself while acknowledging that I would not be doing what I am doing otherwise. I do not think I would have ever chosen to study philosophy had Micah not inspired me to do so. That inspiration was the gift he was able to give me while he was still alive. Now philosophy is something that I love and want to share with others. In my mind, the success I have here is at least somewhat due to Micah. About three months after receiving that email, I boarded an airplane in Amsterdam and headed home. I was sad to be leaving Europe and especially Spain, but I felt like I was embarking a whole new adventure.
In summary, I chose to study with SHPRS because I wanted to study philosophy. I wanted to study philosophy because I wanted to emulate someone that lived a remarkable life. How that will turn out is anyone guess, but I feel like I am on my way. Plus, it is the journey that matters anyway.
How does winning this scholarship help you move towards your goals?
My goal is to pursue a PhD in Philosophy after I graduate from ASU, which will be in the spring of 2018. Winning this award helps me move towards that goal because it gives me confidence that I may actually be admitted to a graduate program and even earning a doctorate in philosophy. It also helps me move towards that goal in a more immediate sense because I think my essay will be a good writing sample for my graduate school applications.
Nicolas Cortez
Guilford A. Dudley Memorial Prize for Excellence in Asian Studies
How is this scholarship important to you?
I am so grateful to have been accepted for the award of the Guilford A. Dudley Memorial Prize Scholarship for Excellence in Asian Studies. This scholarship will be instrumental in allowing me to continue my pursuit of a bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies (Japan) as I enter my senior year at ASU.
Why did you choose to study with SHPRS?
My ultimate decision to study with SHPRS came when I was searching for a degree program that suited me. I have had a great interest in studying Japanese history and culture for several years now. When I came to ASU, I initially entered into the Asian Languages (Japanese) program with SILC because I didn't know well enough where to start my studies of Japan at the time. As I progressed in my studies, I eventually came to discover that I could take a more focused approach to the history and culture with the SHPRS Asian Studies program, while still continuing the Japanese language studies I had already started. I've been grateful for my decision to come to SHPRS ever since. SHPRS is such an important school within ASU in my opinion. Sometimes it seems that everyone my age is focusing on studying in fields such as engineering, business, and the medical fields. While these are all noble and valuable fields, I have found that an invaluable piece of humanity is the study of who we have been in the past; which ideologies we have valued as a part of how we have lived our lives; and what we have believed about the the powers beyond ourselves. To know better the path from which different aspects of humanity have come is to better understand and appreciate each other and may help us find solutions so that we may live in peace with those outside of our own culture as well as those within our own.
How does winning this scholarship help you move towards your goals?
For my part of the understanding of the grand tapestry that is our humanity, I have chosen to place my focus on the study of the peoples of East Asian countries, with a particular emphasis on the people of Japan. With the assistance of this scholarship, I intend to finish my bachelor's degree, after which I intend to continue on to graduate school in order to know more in depth about my field of choice. I would like to thank all of those who have been involved in the process that has led me to this moment of accepting this scholarship from SHPRS. It is such generosity that makes the studying and the preservation of human history by people like me possible.
Michael Fernandez
Friends of Philosophy Scholarship
How is this scholarship important to you?
This scholarship is important to me because it will alleviate some of the financial stress of attending the university, allowing me to focus on completing my degree in philosophy. I am very grateful to the Philosophy Department for having scholarships like this available to their students.
Why did you choose to study with SHPRS?
Quite simply, I chose to study with SHPRS because I love philosophy. I believe philosophy is an invaluable yet underappreciated discipline that demands more attention from contemporary university students. Philosophy teaches us to think critically and deepens our understanding of ourselves and those we interact with. It was the first true academic discipline. Despite this, the SHPRS newsletter last spring indicated that only six ASU students were graduating that semester with the same concentration in philosophy that I am currently pursuing. There are more than 60,000 students attending ASU! It's a discipline that is in desperate need of more scholars, or, at the very least, more public interest. SHPRS has an excellent faculty that does an exceptional job of making philosophy accessible to the university's greater student body. They make introductory level Philosophy courses engaging for those who have never studied philosophy before while still devoting significant time to their upper division students who are committed to the field of philosophy. They really do it all.
How does winning this scholarship help you move towards your goals?
I would love to some day pursue a philosophical education at the postgraduate level, and this scholarship allows me to focus on not simply completing my degree, but excelling at it.
Wilson Hensliegh
Douglas G. Arner Academic Freedom Scholarship
How is this scholarship important to you?
The scholarship is important to me for more than one reason. The money definitely helps but it's also very encouraging to know that there are people that care enough about my academic success to put together this scholarship. Receiving the scholarship award has made me feel like a very important student and like the boss of ASU.
Why did you choose to study with SHPRS?
I chose to study with SHPRS because when I was almost done with my associate degree, some guy I hardly knew suggested that I should study philosophy and I followed his advice. I met with a great academic advisor named Michael Currey and felt at home immediately. I would like to claim a more intentional path, but honestly a lot of my good fortune seems to be dependent on luck.
How does winning this scholarship help you move towards your goals?
Winning the scholarship helps me to stay in school and do my best. I don't have long term goals but the scholarship definitely helps with the short term goal of graduating ASU with excellent marks. I really appreciate being selected.
Beatriz Kravetz
Max Millett Family Travel Grant
How is this scholarship important to you?
In the four years I've been staff at SHPRS, I Have had the opportunity to get to know some of the people that make scholarships possible for our students, like Mrs. Millett. I am humbled by her family's generosity, and I am thankful to have been chosen as a scholarship recipient. In my short time at SHPRS, I have seen the Millett scholarship advance research on exciting topics like Navajo Mormons and the repatriation of Mexicans in the 1930s. My current research is about mining towns that no longer exist and how they are remembered by those who lived there and their descendants.
Why did you choose to study with SHPRS?
I chose SHPRS because of its great faculty.
How does winning this scholarship help you move towards your goals?
The towns of Ray and Sonora no longer exist; they were established to serve the mines in the early 1900s, and they were evacuated in 1965 to be swallowed up by the open pit mine. It is recent history, and much of its records and former residents are still in the area. This scholarship will allow me to spend time in the area consulting county records and visiting historical sites.
Alexandria Paterson
Guilford A. Dudley Memorial Prize for Excellence in Asian Studies
How is this scholarship important to you?
To me, this scholarship represents all the hard work that I have put in over the last two years. It represents my drive to work towards something I'm passionate about, and the fact that everything I have done thus far has been paying off. It's important to me because it shows that the university has noted this, and they support my efforts to work hard and achieve something truly great, particularly in an underrepresented field.
Why did you choose to study with SHPRS?
I chose to study with SHPRS because it provided the opportunity to study something that would help me enter a career doing something I love. SHPRS has given me a vast array of subjects that I didn't even know I needed to learn about, but has launched me in a new direction and helped me dive deeper into not just the cultural aspects of Asia, but also the historical, religious and political aspects as well. I discovered that I'm interested in things like religion and politics, something I hadn't given much thought in the past, and it has even encouraged me to earn a minor in political science.
How does winning this scholarship help you move towards your goals?
This scholarship helps lighten the heavy burden on my shoulders- I can continue to study with less worry about where I will get the finances to pay for my schooling. It gives me peace of mind, not just financially, but also in terms of the validation that I'm doing something right, something worth doing.
The most influential person throughout this whole process of becoming a part of the ASU student body, choosing classes (which he likes to describe as an "Easter Egg Hunt") each semester despite its difficulty, and giving me the encouragement and support that I need to keep going with confidence is my academic adviser, Michael Curry. Without him I would likely have a very hard time loving the major I have chosen. I would like to give him a special thank-you for all the support and kindness he has shown me since I began at ASU. He is the key reason why I have been lucky to see such success during my academic career.
Janna Tobin
Friends of History Scholarship
How is this scholarship important to you?
This scholarship is valuable as it promotes history as an important discipline and works to counteract conceptions of inapplicability and unfruitfulness among students. In an increasingly globalized world, history becomes ever more important to study and understand.
Why did you choose to study with SHPRS?
I chose to study with SHPRS because of the diverse course selection and many opportunities the program offers that allow me to get closer to my career goals in international relations and conflict resolution.
How does winning this scholarship help you move towards your goals?
This scholarship will help me continue my education with SHPRS and explore supplementary disciplines to my European History major.