The Schupf Scholars Program
at Amherst College
Opportunities, by invitation,
for students of exceptional ability
and promise
Ali T haler ’11
With funding from the Schupf Research
Fund, Schupf Scholar and aspiring
writer Ali T haler ’11 spent five
days in Manhattan during Amherst’s
Interterm. She found inspiration for
her writing in the museums that she
visited and in the sights and sounds
of the city. “I filled up half a notebook
with not only notes on interesting
objects and manuscripts from the museums, but with bizarre conversations
I overheard on the streets and interactions I had with people in elevators,”
T haler said. “Traveling is always a
great inspiration for my writing.”
T haler is shown standing next to an
alabaster relief from the palace of
Ashurnasirpal II at Calah (Nimroud).
It is from the ninth century B.C.E. and
is part of the collections of Amherst
College’s Mead Art Museum. T he piece
was the gift of Dr. Henry John Lobdell
(Class of 1849).
Nomination for the Schupf Scholars Program,
An Honor and An Opportunity
Amherst’s Schu p f Schola rs P rogram
recognizes and encourages the highest level of
academic excellence. Each year, the college nominates for this program the most stellar
students from an exceptionally talented group of high school seniors who have been
accepted to Amherst. This nomination is an honor that is based on a record of outstanding
academic achievement and the potential to enrich our community of scholars. Students who
attend Amherst as Schupf Scholars enjoy a variety of opportunities that encourage academic
exploration and growth in exciting, individualized, and intensive ways and that form a unique
part of the undergraduate experience. The program provides support for student research.
Schupf Scholars work one-on-one with members of the Amherst faculty and participate in
the faculty-led Schupf Seminar Series. In addition, a small number of students are invited to
become Schupf Scholars at the end of their first year at Amherst, based upon an outstanding
academic record and nomination by a faculty member at the college.
B en K raus e ’10
Professor of Mathematics and
Schupf faculty mentor Greg Call,
Amherst’s Dean of the Faculty,
meets regularly with Schupf
Scholar Ben Krause ’10, who
hopes to become a math professor one day. Call and Krause
share a love of number theory,
as well as sports, and have been
working with one another since
Krause’s first year at the college.
T he Decision to At t end Amherst: V isit ing Cam pus, Consult ing w it h a Facult y Mentor
Each Schupf Scholar nominee is matched with a member of the Amherst faculty who shares his or her academic
and research interests. While students are considering their final college choice, mentors are available to
answer any questions about Amherst and are happy to chat by phone or email, or to meet on campus with both
students and parents. Nominated students are encouraged to come to Amherst, and the college is pleased to
pay for travel to Amherst and other expenses related to the visit.
Su p po rt fo r R es ea rch and T rav el
Funding for Schupf Scholars to engage in study or research with their mentors, with another member of the
Amherst faculty, or off campus, is available by application beginning in the students’ first year. Schupf Scholars
may avail themselves of these research opportunities throughout their years at Amherst, including summers, as
long as they continue to achieve academic excellence. During the summers and in January, Schupf Scholars are
eligible to receive funding to do research off campus at laboratories, institutions of higher learning, libraries,
and other learning environments in this country and abroad. Students can pursue work in the natural sciences
and mathematics, the social sciences, the humanities, and the arts.
T he Schu p f S emina r P rogram
Schupf Scholars and their faculty mentors participate in special seminars throughout the academic year. Each
afternoon seminar focuses on a different scholarly topic and is led by a Schupf mentor, who gives a presentation
on his or her research. Discussion and dinner follow.
W o r k ing Indiv idua l ly w it h A M em b e r o f t h e Am h e rst Facu lt y
Individualized attention and faculty mentoring are hallmarks of the Schupf Program. Schupf Scholars are free to work with the mentor
who is assigned to them at the time of nomination, or they may choose to switch mentors at any time during their years at Amherst.
Examples of recent collaborations include:
• A student-scientist who worked in the lab with her two faculty mentors, who are physical chemists, on a research study funded by
the National Science Foundation in which Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy was used to gain a better understanding of the
structures of molecules and their interactions
• An aspiring mathematician who spent January on campus studying coupled nonlinear oscillator theory to develop a model for the
circadian clock in the mammalian hypothalamus, with her faculty mentor, an applied mathematician
• A student-writer who met weekly with his faculty mentor, a professor of English and published poet, to discuss the student’s
creative work and to conceive and plan a Schupf-supported trip to Vietnam that would serve as inspiration for his writing projects
Ax el Schu p f ’57, Passionat e about
t he Amherst Ex p erienc e
When Axel Schupf refers to a particularly witty comment
made by his favorite English professor or describes the guidance he received over weekly dinners with his senior thesis
advisor, years seem to melt away. Though five decades have
passed since Schupf was an Amherst student, his experiences
at the college remain vivid and relevant for him. From extraordinary teachers, he absorbed lessons in logical thinking,
meeting challenges, and disciplining the mind. By the time he
graduated, he had developed interests ranging from English
history and economics to classical music. “I would not have
become who I am without Amherst,” Schupf says simply. A
graduate of the Harvard Business School, a Life Trustee of the
Axel Schupf ’57 enjoys meeting with Schupf Scholars when he is on campus.
college, and the father of two Amherst graduates, Axel Schupf
has had a successful career on Wall Street and is one of the most generous benefactors in the history of the
college. In the finest Amherst tradition, he endowed the Schupf Scholars Program to provide superb students
with unique experiences that will form the foundation on which they will build extraordinary lives.
Azlan Smit h ’10
Adv ic e f rom His Amherst Facult y Mentor and T hor eau Tak es One Schu pf Schola r to V iet nam
B
y the time Azlan Smith ’10 arrived at Amherst, he
had written more than seven hundred short stories
and knew that writing would be his life’s work. He drew
inspiration from the writings in which he immersed
himself during years of home-schooling, and for a long
time he took as his mentors Emerson, Orwell, Socrates,
Tolkien, Montaigne, and London. Exceptional figures
may, in their most varied ways, be fine role models and
stimulating company for an aspiring writer. What was
lacking was the personal touch. The Schupf Scholars
Program provided that connection.
David Sofield, Samuel Williston Professor of English
at Amherst, met weekly with Smith and offered his
thoughts about the substance, style, and technique of
Smith’s stories. The two talked about Professor Sofield’s
experiences as a published writer, about the authors
they most admired, about the strength and will needed
to create art, about deep questions that for generations
have led writers to take up their pens. “Professor Sofield
treated me as a fellow writer,” Smith said. “What transSchupf Scholar Azlan Smith ’10 with some young friends in Vietnam
pired during our meetings was serious and offered me a
sense of legitimacy and direction as a writer. I wouldn’t be in the same place right now without him.”
Professor Sofield’s advice took Smith all the way to Vietnam. When considering what he might do using support
offered through the Schupf Program, Smith turned to his mentor. “I asked Professor Sofield if I should do a writing
workshop or, perhaps, return home to refine my work during Interterm. Strangely, we came to the same conclusion.
What I should do had nothing and everything to do with writing. It had to do with living.”
Smith developed a proposal to spend three weeks traveling through Vietnam, and it was fully funded through the
Schupf Research Fund. “I wanted to see myself in a world that I could not imagine, to test myself,” he said. A nature
enthusiast, Smith was surprised that it wasn’t the exquisite landscapes of Vietnam that touched him most, but rather its
people, about whom he now has many stories yet to write. With Professor Sofield’s help, Smith said, “I am paying full
heed to the words of Henry David Thoreau: ‘How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.’”
E m m a F i n k ’11
and
R e b e c c a R e s n i c k ’10
W it h t heir Facult y Mentor, Schu pf Schola rs Ex plor e Genet ics in t he Classroom and t he Lab
E
mma Fink ’11 and Rebecca Resnick ’10
developed their shared passion for
biology early on. Resnick remembers when
her father, a cardiologist, gave her a pig’s
heart for an elementary school science
project. “Everyone else thought it was
gross. I was fascinated.” Fink remembers
being “hooked on biology from the time
I first focused a microscope in the fifth
grade.” Both students later developed an
interest in scientific research during sumSchupf Scholars Rebecca Resnick ’10 (left) and Emma Fink ’11 (right) feel that having Professor Caroline
mers spent at university laboratories.
Goutte as their faculty mentor has been among the most meaningful parts of their Amherst experience.
When deciding where to attend college,
Fink and Resnick considered the opportunities to do research. They both received invitations and funding to participate in
special programs for student-scientists at prestigious research universities—and turned them down to come to Amherst.
“I got the feeling that I might end up just washing beakers at the university I was considering,” Resnick said. “At Amherst, it
seemed clear that I could work with research scientists, participate fully in research, and even design my own experiments.
Amherst and the Schupf Program ended up exceeding all my expectations.”
Fink and Resnick’s plans include earning M.D. and Ph.D. degrees, and the Schupf Program has helped them begin
to gain the knowledge, experience, and technical expertise that they will need. In courses such as “Molecules, Genes,
and Cells” and “Genetic Analysis of Biological Processes,” taught by their faculty mentor, Associate Professor of Biology
Caroline Goutte, the students have studied fundamental concepts of molecular and classical genetics. They have also
assisted with Professor Goutte’s genetics research, which is funded by the National Science Foundation.
In the lab, Fink and Resnick have been exploring mutations in the Notch pathway genes in Caenorhabditis elegans, a
microscopic nematode worm that is popular among research biologists because of its value as a genetic model system.
The students have spent many hours examining the worms through a microscope and have learned to identify the genetic
mutations that affect the animals’ development, and which form an essential part of the research study.
What Professor Goutte, Fink, and Resnick learn from Caenorhabditis elegans might one day have implications for
developing a better understanding of some diseases that afflict humans, since the molecular pathways that mediate
cellular communication in these animals are not so different from our own. For now, recognizing that the process of
scientific discovery is an incremental one, Professor Goutte and the students are taking things one worm at a time.
“I would not have
become who I am
without Amherst.”
a x e l
S c h u p f
’ 5 7
“I would not have become
who I am without Amherst.”
Qu est ions?
axel Schupf ’57
If you have questions
about the Schupf Scholar
Program, please email
Tom Parker, Amherst’s
Dean of Admission
and Financial Aid, at
[email protected].
Amherst College
Office of Admission
P O Box 5000
Amherst, MA 01002-5000
www.amherst.edu