Connecticut native and recent University of Hartford graduate David Spiro is settling into life at Oxford University after earning the prestigious John G. Martin scholarship. It's allowed him to enroll in Hertford College at Oxford for two years on a full scholarship. David excelled in psychology and is looking forward to furthering his studies in experimental psychology at Oxford. He left for England September 29th, 2007 and will be joining other University of Hartford Martin scholars there. David is from Durham, Connecticut and graduated from the University of Hartford in May 2007. He says he came to the university planning on being a cinema major but quickly fell in love with the school of communications and psychology in particular. From its top-notch faculty to small class sizes, David says he learned a whole new way to think thanks to
the University of Hartford's psychology department. That's what led him to an Independent Study Research Project studying how people are perceived if they smell bad. He presented his research at a University Colloquium where he was able to display his remarkable work. We wish David the best of luck in his endeavors!

Since 1987, the very best students of each graduating class at the University of Hartford have vied for an extraordinary experience: a full scholarship for two years of study at the University of Oxford in England. Winners have included a painter, a physicist, an oboe player, three engineers, a philosopher, and two politics and government majors. They have come to Hartford from places like Maine and New York, but also from Ecuador and Uzbekistan.

Their common ground is that they are exceptional students who stand out from the crowd. All of the recipients have graduated either summa cum laude or magna cum laude from the university. Half of the Martin Scholars participated in the university's Honors Program. Faculty members consistently use superlatives when describing them. For example, Laurence Gould, professor of physics, calls his former student Jessica Dunmore '98 "one of the 'crown jewels' of the University of Hartford."

How It All Began

Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, president of the University of Hartford from 1977 to 1989, became intrigued in the late 1980s by the fact that one of the nearly 40 colleges at the University of Oxford was named Hertford College. Although the spelling is different, Hertford and Hartford are pronounced the same, and this fact led him to propose a relationship between the two institutions. Around 1986, the hunt began for an endowment to fund a Hartford graduate to study at Hertford College.

As it happened, John G. Martin, president of the Heublein Corp. in Hartford, had died in 1986. Belle K. Ribicoff, then a development liaison to the Office of the President at the university, contacted the late Daniel Flynn, then president of Resources Management Corp., in Farmington, with an idea. "I said to him, 'There's nothing in Hartford to commemorate John Martin. Couldn't we ask the family to give us something in his name?'" Flynn liked the idea and agreed to approach Martin's sister, Helen Moor Martin of Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England. Ribicoff then wrote the proposal for what would become the John G. Martin Scholarship to the University of Oxford, and Helen Martin accepted it.

Since 1986, the selection of the Martin Scholar has been coordinated by Associate Provost Guy C. Colarulli. It is a rigorous process that includes a demanding application comprising essays, transcripts, and faculty recommendations as well as an interview with a panel of faculty and deans. The panel nominates up to three graduating seniors, and the faculty of Hertford College review the applications and choose one Martin Scholar.

Looking Backward and Forward

Along with a number of faculty members who have stayed in contact with the Martin Scholars over the years is Charles Condon, university secretary and secretary to the London-based trust that administers the scholarship funds. Condon can reel off the list of Martin Scholars in order and knows well their achievements, current locations, and endeavors. "They are bright, industrious, and highly motivated scholars," he says, "who immerse themselves in the transforming experience of studying at one of the world's great universities and testing their intelligence against a broad range of experiences."

There can be no doubt that the John G. Martin Scholarship has provided rare opportunities to Hartford graduates over the years. Currently, the university is seeking funding to create undergraduate scholarships for incoming students with high academic potential-students who will become the Martin Scholars of the future. Belle Ribicoff, now a life regent at the university, is interested in supporting new programs that will attract these academic superstars to the university.