Flinn Scholars

The newest Flinn Scholars and the Flinn Scholars Program have honored 17 Arizona educators for their outstanding dedication and service. Each educator was nominated by a member of the 2009 class of Flinn Scholars for having a significant impact on their education and development.

The Flinn Scholars Program will honor 23 graduating Scholars at the program's annual Recognition Dinner on May 17, celebrating the students' exceptional array of accomplishments during their undergraduate years and highlighting their diverse goals for the future.

On May 2, a select group of Flinn Scholars spent a day working in the Cornville art studio of internationally acclaimed sculptor John Waddell and his wife, painter Ruth Waddell. A visit to the Waddells' studio has been an annual highlight of the Flinn Scholars program for nearly all of the past 24 years.

Leonard Downie Jr., a major figure in American journalism and witness to some of the most important moments in politics over the past 40 years, joined a small group of Flinn Scholars for almost two hours on Oct. 18 as part of his brief residency as the Flinn Foundation Centennial Lecturer at Arizona State University.

It's no hyperbole to say that the classroom, for 1999 Flinn Scholar Jon Gandomi, has been the entire world. Now he is beginning a career in public service--service that is, again, oriented toward the entire world.

The Phoenix Mars Mission, commanded from the University of Arizona, is guided by some of the world's foremost geochemists, robotics engineers, atmospheric scientists, science educators, hydrologists, and computer scientists. And working alongside them are two current Flinn Scholars, Melissa Lamberton (2005) and Matt Hom (2008).

There's no denying that 2004 Flinn Scholar Dustin Cox is rather young to be receiving an award that usually recognizes a lifetime's dedication to volunteering, but there's also no denying that Cox has, at the age of 22, already given a lifetime's worth of service. He is being recognized for that work with one of the most prestigious honors an Arizonan can receive, the Hon Kachina Volunteer Award.

Though they share a record of high achievement as students and leaders in their communities, the interests of Flinn Scholars are about as varied as one could imagine. The 2008 Annual Retreat offered something for every one of them.