The Learning Experience

Stover Scholars have outstanding opportunities to broaden their horizons and to deepen their understanding.

Fascinating Questions

Being a Stover Scholar means the chance to explore some of the most interesting and important ideas and issues imaginable, for instance:

What can we learn—and apply today—from the leaders of our Founding Era, with its amazing concentration of talent and political ability?

How do we translate fundamental beliefs about what is moral and ethical into policies on specific and complex issues, whether they relate to taxation, or energy, or international security?

How can committed citizens work effectively to bring about social and political change?

Exceptional Encounters

Whether meeting officials during visits to Washington or welcoming them to Waynesburg, Stover Scholars come face-to-face with an array of influential leaders. A few recent examples:

  • Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and the late Justice Antonin Scalia
  • United States Circuit Court Judges, Alice Batchelder Mark Fisher, Thomas Hardiman, and Kara Stoll
  • United States District Judges Claude Hilton and Mark Hornak
  • United States Court of Federal Claims Victor Wolski
  • Former U.S. Attorney General and Pennsylvania Governor Richard L. Thornburgh
  • Michael Carvin and Gregory Katsas, Supreme Court litigators
  • Economists Allan Meltzer (Carnegie Mellon University), Stephen Moore (The Heritage Foundation) and Richard Rahn (CATO Institute)
  • John Walters, former Director of White House Office of National Drug Control Policy
  • Ambassadors Manuel Sager. (Switzerland), Bayney Karran (Guyana)
  • Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto
  • Ohio Governor John Kasich
  • Former Federal Communications Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy
  • Robert Casey and Pat Toomey, United States Senators from Pennsylvania
  • General Edwin Meese III, U.S. Attorney General under President Ronald Reagan
  • Robert Vernon, former Assistant Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, author, and founder of the Pointman Leadership Institute
  • Professors Charles Abernathy (Georgetown University Law Center), Randy Barnett (Georgetown University Law Center), Charles Kesler (Claremont McKenna College), David Skeel (University of Pennsylvania Law School), and Theda Skocpol (Harvard University)
  • Jeffrey Merrifield, former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Commissioner and Partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
  • Chris Cillizza, Washington Post reporter
  • Mara Liasson, NPR reporter
  • Tucker Carlson, Fox News correspondent

Impressive Résumés

The Stover Scholar Program culminates with a senior internship, which provides the chance to bring together diverse ideas and apply them in a context that fits students’ individual interests and goals.

The Stover Center aspires to prepare its Scholars to make a positive difference in whatever sphere of endeavor they choose, be it law, public policy, or politics, business, teaching, or health care. In addition to enjoying exceptional educational opportunities, each Scholar has the chance to build an impressive transcript of experiences, likely to gain the attention of graduate school admissions committees and future employers.

Interested in learning more?