Pursuing a New Network of Success
At the first Clark Scholars Program Network (CSPN) Summit, held on the campus of Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in early 2025, Clark Scholar Program leaders and students came together to connect, collaborate, and innovate. Ice-breaker and team-building exercises started off the weekend for the approximately 115 Clark Scholars from 11 leading engineering institutions that comprise the CSPN, which is housed at the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering. Duke University Clark Scholar Antonio Drakes summed up his Clark Scholar experience in one word: community. “It’s got that community you just can’t get anywhere else,” he said. His classmate and Clark Scholar, Ivan Chen, added “opportunity” to the benefits of the scholarship program, which serves bright and ambitious engineering students with financial need. The inaugural CSPN Summit featured events including a student design competition; an exclusive tour of M&T Bank Stadium, a landmark built by Clark Construction; and a panel composed of A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation leadership, including Clark Foundation Board Chair Courtney Clark Pastrick, Clark Foundation President and CEO Joe Del Guercio, and University of Maryland (UMD) President Darryll J. Pines. Pines and Clark Foundation leadership shared with sophomore and junior Clark Scholars stories of the late Mr. Clark and advice regarding leadership, professional development, and paying their opportunities forward. Words of wisdom imparted to the students included: listen, take risks, fail often, thank your mentors, give back, and operate always with integrity. These values were characteristic of Mr. Clark, who received an engineering scholarship when he was a student at UMD and went on to become a legendary builder and philanthropist. “One thing I really liked was hearing from the Clark Foundation about Mr. Clark and what he envisioned for us students,” said UMD Clark Scholar Tracy Osse. Pastrick, daughter of Mr. Clark, spoke about her father and about the scholarship program that bears his name. “When we launched the program, our goal was to support and foster a community of future engineering leaders by giving back to the communities that gave my father so much.” While the Clark Foundation will be sunsetting at the end of 2025, she added, “The Clark Scholars Program will exist forever and be my father’s philanthropic legacy.” Sustaining Community Since 2016, Clark Scholars number among the most promising engineers, students, researchers, and community members in the country. With the ambition to continue that tradition, the Clark Foundation and UMD announced in 2023 that UMD’s Clark School of Engineering would serve as a new, permanent home for the CSPN. “We are thrilled to continue fostering learning and connections through the CSPN, and deeply grateful to the Clark Foundation for entrusting UMD to do it,” said Samuel Graham, dean of the Clark School. As a longtime partner of the Clark Foundation, the Clark School will continue the Clark Scholars Program legacy, honoring its values and mission to bring together exceptional engineers, scholars, and leaders from leading engineering institutions. Following the guidance of its eponym, A. James Clark, the CSPN combines engineering, business, leadership, and community service to educate the next generation of engineers prepared to address critical societal challenges. CSPN Director Joakina Stone spoke about the uniqueness of the scholarship program. “Clark Scholars not only receive an elite engineering education but also cultivate and expand their community cultural wealth, creating a lifelong network,” she said. Through signature events, such as the annual Summit, Stone looks forward to “building a robust network that fosters an environment where engineers can thrive, develop business acumen, and make a social impact.” Guiding Engineering Excellence Prior to the student-focused Summit, 25 CSPN program leaders met to advance their collective goal at their respective institutions: graduate Clark Scholars with little student loan debt, support them with wrap-around care and resources during their time in school, and cultivate a network of high-achieving Clark Scholar alums. Since its beginning, a key element of the Clark Scholars Program has been collaboration among its program leaders. Leaders across all 11 universities rely on one another as they work toward the shared goal of ensuring their scholars succeed. “Working together to share ideas and challenges—for us, this is all about how we can continue to fulfill the goals of this program in a very collaborative way,” said Mia Russell, a program leader at JHU. “It’s exciting to see these students and leaders of tomorrow, engaged and creating relationships for a lifetime.” Over workshops and break-out sessions, the program leaders shared ways to better educate students and improve outcomes in engineering education. Focused on helping their Clark Scholars from recruitment through graduation and beyond, discussions centered on admissions and financial pathways, health and wellness challenges, service and community partnerships, summer programs, cross-cohort interaction, alumni participation, networking, and more. In particular, one workshop was designed to help program leaders better understand the changing landscape of financial aid processes to better help their students. “From initiatives that program leaders can learn about and implement in their Clark Scholars’ experiences—such as cohort dinners—to larger, more programmatic items—such as the Cultural Passport initiative—program leader meetings are always an important part of the process,” said David Torello, program leader at Georgia Tech. “We really talk to each other and use each other as sounding boards,” he said. “This is a very useful community of practice and the most useful workshop I go to all year. It’s special.” With the establishment of the CSPN, there is much to anticipate on the horizon. Torello is especially excited for the new alumni network, a structure that has the potential to connect the hundreds of Clark Scholars past and present, to great advantage—academically, professionally, and interpersonally. “I’ve heard from our own Clark Scholar alums that they would like to take part,” he said. Fostering Enduring Connections Another Summit highlight included a panel of Clark Scholars alums that brought together three graduates from three different institutions to talk to current Clark Scholars about their experiences making the transition from college student to young professional: Reed Cooper graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2023 and is a project engineer at Project Farma; Kayleigh Taylor graduated from UMD in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and is an embedded software engineer at LP Harris and a graduate student in computer science at JHU; and Alexander Rovalino graduated from JHU in 2023 and spun out his senior-year Clark Scholars Program project into an independent startup called Aquapitas before becoming a field services engineer for a life sciences company. Through an informal, informative Q&A, panelists discussed how being Clark Scholars improved their college experiences, increasing their opportunities and enlarging their communities on campus. “Even through the COVID pandemic, we were still able to connect and share experiences at a time when it was difficult to keep those social connections,” said Rovalino. “We developed a really strong cohort sharing all that.” Practical advice shared by the alums with current Clark Scholars included, make connections with faculty, leverage your dot-edu email address, develop time management skills, cast your net wide, and go to info sessions. “I attended a Clark Scholars info session about research opportunities on and off campus,” recalled Taylor. “They told me about the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, and that’s how I ended up doing research at Florida Atlantic University.” The panelists also covered how the Clark Scholars Program helped ease the transition from being a college student to a working professional. “I grew up in Tennessee and went to school in Tennessee, so moving to D.C. was a really big move,” said Cooper. “Knowing that I could have that support system from Clark [the Clark Scholars Program] was huge.” As the inaugural CSPN Summit drew to a close, Clark Scholars and program leaders left feeling united by community, inspired by Mr. Clark’s legacy, and committed to forging the collaborative networks and innovations that will drive engineering solutions for generations to come.
June 2, 2025 Prev Next |
