This brand-new program is both a unique experience at Iona University and at colleges and universities across the country, providing our scholars with the partnerships, community, and resources to better understand the past in order to build our collective futures. Inspired by the legacy of Thomas Paine, our fellows will develop skills that are essential for twenty-first century scholarly and professional paths, from education and activism, to social and digital media, data science and information literacy, to law and policy. Paine himself was a student of history, and knew its essential value not only for being an informed and engaged citizen but also in his work as a writer, activist, diplomat, and civil servant. The connection between historical knowledge and individual growth, both as a scholar and in success in these many, wide-ranging career paths, is the foundation of this program.
Paine Scholars will get the same value from this program through three key experiences. First, Paine Scholars will participate in curriculum that partners them as interns and fellows with exception institutions, from the Center for Digital History at George Washington’s Mount Vernon to the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania to the Thomas Paine Cottage Museum right here in New Rochelle.
Second, Paine Scholars will benefit from networking and events where they will both hone their research and academic skills with an eye towards professional opportunities after graduation. Third, Paine Scholars, like their namesake, will have the support of a close and engaged community in New Rochelle and at Iona University.
