Student Opportunities

Student Opportunities

Opportunities available to students through the Institute of Religion, Politics, and Culture at Washington College.

Philosophy class at Washington College

Cincinnatus Scholarship

Named in honor of the College’s namesake General Washington, who has been called the American Cincinnatus, the Cincinnatus Scholarship of IRPC confers on an entering student a 4 year scholarship of $2,500 per year, plus a $5,000 grant that the Cincinnatus Scholar uses toward participation in any of IRPC’s distinctive programs, including the summer on-line courses or our international programs.

Student Research Fellowships

IRPC administers annually the following Student Research Fellowships: 

WC Hillel Student lights a candle

The Roy Ans Research Fellowship

The Roy Ans Fellowship in Jewish-American Studies offers a $2,500 stipend for a student completing a research project related to the Jewish-American experience. The fellowship is made possible by the generous support of Roy P. Ans '63 and Nan Susan Ans.

Students receiving this grant may register for an independent study course to receive academic credit, or use the opportunity for independent research. 

A Washington College sign sits in a patch of white flowers

The Jacob Marberger Fellowship

Named in honor of the brilliant Washington College student Jacob Marberger, this $2,500 grant for student research affords the award winner the opportunity to conduct research on any aspect of conflict resolution, broadly defined. 

IRPC students in Prague

Student Fellows

IRPC Student Fellows are dedicated, high achieving undergraduates committed to participating in the life of the Institute. Student Fellows benefit from an intensive and highly interactive mentoring environment. In fact, each IRPC Student Fellow is assigned an external mentor who is a distinguished and highly accomplished professional.

Presidential Fellows Track

Modeled on the curriculum of Oxford University, with which IRPC has a long-standing partnership, this Track immerses Presidential Fellows in the study of major thinkers and the examination of perennial human questions. 

George Washington statue at Washington College campus

About the Track 

The track is inspired by two classic approaches to higher learning found at the University of Oxford: its famous program in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and its curriculum known worldwide as the study of the ‘Greats’ - the great thinkers who have enriched the human experience. 

Students engage such questions as the meaning of happiness, knowledge and freedom, the first principles of a just regime, the value of the rule of law, and the founding principles of the United States Constitution; the role and function of free markets and of economic activity; and questions concerning humanity’s ultimate purpose. 

This track also encourages students to exercise leadership to forge a humane society by working toward the attainment of what classical thinkers called phronesis - the wisdom to enact the principles discovered in theoretical inquiry. To achieve these goals students meet twice monthly for conversation over food, are invited to special events on and off campus, are encouraged and assisted to obtain internships, are connected with leaders in their field whose education in these areas during their own undergraduate years was critical to their current professional success, are invited to participate in the activities of IRPC, and, ultimately, have the option to enroll in a study abroad program at the University of Oxford.

learn more about the presidential fellows program