April 2, 2018
Five students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s College of Arts and Sciences were selected as recipients of the 2018 Burch Fellowship to pursue unique, self-defined educational experiences anywhere off UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus.
The Burch Fellows Program was established in 1993 by a gift from UNC-Chapel Hill alumnus Lucius E. Burch, III. Its purpose is to recognize undergraduate students at Carolina who possess extraordinary ability, promise, and imagination. The students propose self-designed endeavors that will make a demonstrable difference in the selected Burch Fellows’ lives and enable them to pursue a passionate interest in a way and to a degree not otherwise possible. Funding of up to $6,000 is available towards the expenses of each proposed project.
To be chosen as a Burch Fellow, an applicant must present convincing evidence of exceptional intellectual, creative, civic, or leadership ability and promise through the application, recommendations, and interview. The proposed fellowship experience should allow the pursuit of an intense interest well beyond the scope of an academic course, a vocational commitment, a summer job, internship, or enrichment program. All Carolina undergraduates who meet eligibility requirements may apply.
Alex Polydoroff, class of 2019, is from Berkeley, California and is majoring in anthropology and music, with a concentration in jazz bass performance. He will spend three months volunteering in youth migrant camps in Sicily, Italy. Alex will work with the local Intercultural Studies Center to lead music classes that help migrant children collaboratively make music about their experiences, perform their original music at local venues, and eventually record an album ensuring future support for music education in the migrant camps.