Flinn Scholars News

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 Flinn Scholars Program uses an online electronic application, allowing you to save and check your work, then send your completed application to the Flinn Foundation with a simple click of the mouse.

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.

The Flinn Scholars Program honored 22 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.

Twenty of Arizona's premier high-school seniors have chosen to pursue their college education at an Arizona public university on a Flinn Foundation Scholarship. The award provides four years of study, academic-focused travel abroad, personal mentorship by faculty members, and other benefits. The package is valued at approximately $50,000—on top of tuition and fee waivers from their chosen universities.

Two Flinn Scholars engaged in advanced biomedical research, Lara Cardy and Michael Mitchell, have received the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, the top national award for undergraduates in science, engineering, and mathematics.

Megan McGinnity, a 2003 Flinn Scholar, has won one of the world's most esteemed graduate fellowships, the Marshall Scholarship. Next fall she will begin studying Middle East politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, extending her investigation of foreign policy and security and how they are intertwined with human trafficking.

One of the Flinn Scholarship Program's key enrichment components is a public-policy seminar series that allows Scholars to meet some of Arizona's most important leaders. On Oct. 27, current Scholars enjoyed an extended conversation with one of the nation's most important jurists of the past 100 years, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Anne Marie Norgren ('06) has engaged in diverse and meaningful encounters with Latin American culture that have yielded a nuanced understanding of some of the most vexing issues facing Arizona, the Mexican state of Chiapas, and children worldwide. Her desire to keep learning is far from satisfied.

High-achieving Arizona high school seniors are encouraged to apply for the 2008 Flinn Scholarship, a four-year award to an Arizona public university valued at more than $50,000. In addition to covering virtually all expenses, the package includes study-travel opportunities abroad, faculty mentorship, invitations to cultural and academic events, and other benefits.