Smith named 2014-2015 ISI Honors Fellow; one of 60 nationwide
Smith at the ISI "Arguing Conservatism" Symposium hosted by the McConnell Center last July.
Natalie Smith,an Elizabethtown, Ky.-native, was named a 2014-2015 Honors Fellow at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).
ISI is an educational organization based in Wilmington, DE, dedicated to educating future leaders on the principles of the American founding. According to their website, ISI’s mission is “to inspire college students to discover, embrace, and advance the principles and virtues that make America free and prosperous.”
The ISI Honors Fellowship is a year-long fellowship in which students explore the core questions of the American Founding. The 2014-2015 Honors Fellows, including Smith, will be studying the “Traditions of Liberty” and the role of liberty in American political thought.
One of sixty ISI Honors Fellows nationwide, Smith will be assigned an academic mentor who will serve as a resource for discussing assigned readings, intellectual ideals and career possibilities. Additionally, Smith will attend an all-expense paid summer conference in Seabeck, WA, as well as a weekend conference later in the school year.
On being selected as an Honors Fellow, Smith said, “I'm very excited to have been selected because I think it's a great opportunity to grow and learn from esteemed professors across the nation and also interact with students from across the US.”
Smith learned of the Honors Fellowship through her participation in ISI’s “Arguing Conservatism” Symposium hosted by the McConnell Center last July.
“The McConnell Center has definitely prepared me because the layout of our conversations at the conference is very similar to that of the seminars we participate in as McConnell Scholars. I'm excited to apply what I've come to learn in Louisville at the conference I attend,” Smith added.
Smith is the second McConnell Scholar to be named an ISI Honors Fellow in recent years. Junior Sean Southard was selected last year as a 2013-2014 ISI Honors Fellow.
Smith is a sophomore McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville studying political science, English, history, and linguistics. In addition to being a McConnell Scholar, Smith serves as Outreach Director of the McConnell Scholars Program, Academics Vice-President for the university’s Honors Student Council and is a university Cardinal Host.
By Mary Elizabeth Young, McConnell Scholar '16