CCE major Ambrose wins Mount Vernon Leadership Fellowship
Phoebe Ambrose, a sophomore majoring in
citizenship and civic engagement at Maxwell, and food studies at the Falk
College of Sport and Human Dynamics, has been named a 2020 Mount Vernon
Leadership Fellow.
Ambrose was one of 14 fellows selected, from
among more than 900 applicants; she is Syracuse University’s first Mount Vernon
Fellow. This award provides Ambrose the opportunity to participate in a six-week,
fully funded institute at both George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate and in
Old Town Alexandria. In addition to costs associated with institute tuition,
travel, room, and board, Ambrose will receive a $3,000 stipend as part of the
fellowship.
Owing to coronavirus mitigation efforts, the
summer 2020 edition of the Mount Vernon institute has been deferred until
further notice. When it is held, Ambrose will have the chance to enhance her
leadership skills both in the classroom and through interactions with senior
leaders in government, corporate, and nonprofit positions. Additionally, the
fellowship provides Ambrose an opportunity to connect with other young leaders
from across the United States in order to build a network devoted to changing
the world. At the end of the program, Ambrose will have the chance to design,
implement, and present results from a capstone project meant to benefit local
communities.
Much of Ambrose’s undergraduate work has
focused on community gardening. She has invested time as a volunteer at the
Brady Farm, a Syracuse community garden that provides organically grown food to
local communities and runs urban ecology workshops. This past summer, Syracuse
University began its own community garden, Pete’s Giving Garden, and Ambrose’s
capstone project as a Mount Vernon Fellow will focus on increasing local
community engagement with the garden.
Ambrose grew up on a farm and attended Manlius
Pebble Hill School in Dewitt, New York. She hopes to pursue a master’s degree
before moving into the nonprofit sector, and hopes to found and run an
organization focused on implementing community gardens in schools. Ambrose sees
farming as an important way people can learn resilience, adaptability, and
self-sufficiency. A member of Alpha Gamma Delta, she is also an Invest in
Syracuse Scholar, and a member of the Renee Crown University Honors Program. Ambrose worked with Syracuse University's Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising (CFSA) on her application for the fellowship.
The Mount Vernon Leadership Fellowship, in its sixth
year, has built a reputation for identifying and attracting top talent.
Previous recipients have gone on to win additional prestigious awards,
including Fulbright, Schwarzman, Rangel, and Trump Fellowships. You can read
more about the fellowship at the Mount Vernon website. For more information about this and other scholarship and fellowship opportunities available, please contact the CFSA at cfsa@syr.edu.
03/30/20