Other Features
Public Higher Education Takes to the Texas Airwaves
Students Expand the Borders of Health
In past years, Archer Fellows have worked at a variety of high-profile locations, including the White House, Capitol Hill, the State Department and the United Nations Information Center. Alumni have gone on to law and graduate schools. As Jenifer Sarver points out, though, the Fellows program is still so young that its graduates are only beginning their adult careers.
“The Archer program gives students a chance to observe how a unique city like Washington and its power centers really function,” says Anna Bell Farrar, a spring 2001 Archer Fellow who is now pursuing a master's degree in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. “It's rare for students to have such a hands-on learning opportunity and an unbiased look at what working in legislative or public affairs requires before they actually graduate.
“For me, it provided experience and contacts that were invaluable and certainly gave me a headstart for a career in public service.”
Starting out with students only from UT Austin, the Fellowship Program has quickly expanded to UT's other academic campuses. In fall 2006, when a UT Brownsville student comes to Washington, Archer Fellows will have included students from all nine academic campuses.
Especially with students now living together in houses, Jenifer Sarver says, each semester of Archer Fellows takes on its own class personality. “But it's not just the students who come here,” she said. “That kind of class personality also depends on what's going on in Washington when they're here.”
 |
 |
|
Living together in a four-story house close to the U.S. Supreme |
|
In fall 2004, for example, the students' experiences were dominated by the November elections and campaigns. Fall 2001 students became particularly close to one another after the trauma of the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
“You know, it surprised me,” Ms. Sarver says, “that none of the students left after September 11. They all stayed here.”
One of her greatest pleasures as the director of the Center, Ms. Sarver says, is seeing Archer Fellows whose career plans have been shaped by their experiences in Washington. “So many of them tell me — after just a semester — that they now know what they want to do,” she says. “They know they want to go to law school or grad schools. Or that they don't. They know they want to go into politics — or that it isn't right for them.”
Even for Archer Fellows like Christine Nguyen, Edward Adrian Sandoval or Beth Andersen — who still aren't certain what careers they will pursue — their time in Washington has greatly affected them.
“I grew up in a place that's 99% Hispanic,” says Edward Sandoval, who is from South Texas and had never been to Washington before this semester. “It wasn't exactly a diverse place. Being here is so enriching.
“It's a beautiful city. It has a little bit of everything — a melding of people and cultures. With every student we bring up here, we have one more enlightened mind.”
“These students give me hope for the future,” Ms. Sarver says. “We're nurturing great leaders for the state of Texas.”
Previous Page - 1, 2
601 Colorado Street || Austin, TX 78701-2982 || Telephone: (512) 499-4200
Home || Email Comments || Directory || Open Records || Privacy Policy || Reports to the State