2024 - 2025 Alfie Scholars Application is Now Open. Application Deadline is April 30th.
Lead the change that is yours to make
The Alfie Scholar Program cultivates civility leaders and provides a scholarship to Seattle University rising juniors and transfer students from underrepresented communities.
Our Mission
The Alfie Scholars Program provides programing and financial scholarships to underrepresented students who are committed to civility leadership and social justice.
Our goal is to help Alfie Scholars bring their voices, diversity, and rich lived experiences to address challenging social issues of our times. Our program equips the scholars not only to enter, contribute, and foster civility in higher academia and the professions, but also to become civility leaders who make a positive impact in their respective communities.
Alfie Scholars receive:
$15,000 PER YEAR SCHOLARSHIP DISTRIBUTED OVER 2 YEARS
CIVILITY LEADERSHIP TRAINING
INTENSIVE IMMERSION SUMMER PROGRAM
INDIVIDUAL ADVISING AND INSTRUCTION
Why foster Civility ?
Individually and societally, we’ve suffered from and are still overwhelmed by a combination of abrasions including, among others, the impact of the isolation of the COVID Pandemic lock-down, the stark exposure of historical structural economic and racial inequities, the unprecedented levels of anxiety and depression amongst the youth, and the undermining of foundational institutions that protect our democracy. Civility skills can help heal and soothe these abrasions, and they also help prevent and mitigate future abrasions. Like salves that heal and soothe a physical abrasion, civility and civility leadership skills heal and soothe individual, relational, and societal abrasions. Join us in our mission to heal and soothe these abrasions.
Now is the time to make your difference.
Now is the moment to start your movement.
Now empower yourself: become an Alfie Scholar.
#BEYOND
The Alfie Scholars Program is a more than a scholarship; it is a comprehensive program calibrated to transform scholars into civility leaders committed to finding and implementing solutions to complex social issues. During 2 years, the scholars attend, as a cohort, a summer session before each of their junior and senior years, five full-day Civility Leadership Retreats at the beginning of each quarter, and other special programs, receptions, and events throughout both academic years.
#INCLUSIVITY
We promote an inclusive society by empowering underrepresented transfer students to obtain degrees, fostering diversity and civility in higher education and professions. Through collaboration with Seattle University, an institution of superior academic standing, dedicated to social justice leadership, we create a bridge for scholars to contribute effectively.
#CIVILITYLEADERS
Civility Leaders actively promote social justice through dialogue and action. They use their voice to enlighten and advocate for the voiceless as they work to support the common good and our shared humanity.
#ALFIEFAMILY
The Alfie Scholars Program is designed to elevate a cohort of diverse students into a deeply bonded familial community with the collective purpose to support each other in their shared commitment to be civility leaders who effect positive social change. This chosen family provides the safety, encouragement, and accountability that build confidence and accelerate the necessary personal and academic growth to propel students to excel and expand what is possible.
Our Team
The Alfie Scholars have Carol Cochran, the Program’s director, available full-time to help scholars navigate the university system and manage student life and to advocate for them with the university, as necessary. They also have the entire Alfie Scholars Team, including two retired law professors, three philosophy professors, a communications professor, a reference librarian, a psychotherapist, and two associate deans, who design and teach the program components and provide individual guidance and advice.
What it means to be an Alfie Scholar in their own words:
Alfie Scholars live the mission of being a civility leader; model good civility practices in their personal, academic, and professional lives; have a community and other resources at their disposal; and feel valued for who they are and challenged to be their authentic selves and make the world a better place.