MEADVILLE, Pa. - December 1, 2001 - Offering a new opportunity to help college students connect academic programs with co-curricular activities, Allegheny College has announced the development of a new scholar program: The Betsy Dotson, Esquire, Experiential Learning Fund, which supports experiential learning opportunities in Washington, D.C.

"Betsy Dotson was a pioneer in creating the important Allegheny College connection with Washington, D.C.," says Dr. Robert Seddig, chair of Allegheny’s political science department. "She believed in fostering wide perspectives on learning - what we today call ‘experiential learning.’ On her own initiative, she undertook an internship and study in the city as an undergraduate and later was instrumental in developing student-alumni trip to ‘the Beltway’ every two years."

All full-time Allegheny students who require financial assistance to attend experiential learning opportunities in the Washington, D.C., area will be considered for the award, although preference will be given to female political science majors. Experiential learning opportunities include attendance at conferences and seminars; participation in internships; and tuition for enrollment in special courses.

"With the money I received through the Dotson Scholarship Fund, I was able to spend an entire summer interning full-time for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton," says Allison Haley ‘02. "I learned more than I ever thought I could about the legislative process and how the Senate in particular functions."

Experiential learning at Allegheny College is a component of the educational process in which students are active participants in events and activities leading to the accumulation of knowledge, skills and values in settings beyond the classroom. Through the combination of active participation, the acquisition of knowledge and reflection, experiential learning activities promote intellectual development, cross-cultural and global awareness, civic and social responsibility, career exploration and personal growth.

Betsy Dotson was a distinguished student of political science at Allegheny College and, following her 1974 graduation, she received a law degree from Wake Forest University. Dotson also received a master’s degree in public administration from American University in 1984 and later served as a lawyer in the U.S. House of Representatives’ Office of Finance. Beginning in 1990, Dotson worked at the Government Finance Officers Association, where she also served as director from 1997 to 2000.

"The diversity of careers and accomplishments of our department’s graduates has long been a source of pride and honor for the political science faculty," Seddig explains. "Betsy was, from the beginning, an important member of this alumni group, known for her leadership and dedication to Allegheny and its undergraduate mission."

The Betsy Dotson, Esquire Experiential Learning Fund has been created by a generous gift from Dotson’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Bruce Dotson of Potomac, Md., in her honor and memory.

Allegheny College is a nationally recognized, selective college of the liberal arts and sciences in northwestern Pennsylvania. Founded in 1815, Allegheny is one of forty colleges featured in Loren Pope’s Colleges That Change Lives, which profiles colleges with "a familial sense of communal enterprise…and a faculty of scholars devoted to helping young people develop their powers."