The Boston College Presidential Scholars graduated its first class of Scholars in 1995 and is the premier merit scholarship program of its kind. The students form a community of scholars whose dedication to the pursuit of knowledge reflects the words of William Butler Yeats, who wrote, "Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire." In the process of discovering that which ignites their intellectual passion, this community seeks to fulfill the highest ideals of the Jesuit educational tradition. That 450-year tradition casts the university not merely as a professional training ground, but as a starting point to begin the most fundamental and exciting human quest: the quest for individual meaning in relationship to the universe and the search for a path that expresses that meaning each day - in work, in avocation, in leadership practiced not for self-aggrandizement, but for the common good.
The Presidential Scholars Program provides this select group of students from across the University with a strong framework for their exploration, starting with a sequence of three summer programs focusing on service, internationalism and profession. These give the Scholars the opportunity to integrate course work with personal experience, and weave the university experience into a seamless whole.
