Aug. 20, 2007 -- Two University of Virginia students, Timothy English and Svantje Swider, have been named honors fellows for 2007 by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a national educational organization headquartered in Wilmington, Del.

English, of Derwood, Md., is a mechanical and systems engineering major, while Swider, of Alexandria, Va., is a foreign affairs major.

As honors fellows, both students recently attended a weeklong, all-expenses-paid summer conference in Québec City, Canada, titled “Law in the Western Tradition: Common, Constitutional, Natural, and Divine.” There, fellows explored the values and ideas that animate the Western tradition, untangled questions of contemporary politics and discussed natural justice, natural law and natural rights, led by faculty mentors from numerous colleges and universities.

"The ISI Honors Program is a unique mentoring program offering our most talented undergraduates opportunity to engage in high-level, one-on-one debate with elite university faculty,” said John Joseph Shanley, director of the honors program for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. “Such mentoring opportunities are rare in the modern academy."

Throughout the upcoming academic year, the students will receive continuing direction from faculty mentors through participation in small seminars and online discussions. ISI faculty mentors and staff will provide one-on-one assistance to the each of the Honors Fellows, including information about internships, job opportunities, graduate and professional programs and related concerns. The students will attend an ISI Career Development Seminar, designed to prepare them for leadership positions, and receive free books and journals.

Founded in 1953, ISI works "to educate for liberty" by identifying the best and brightest college students and nurturing in these future leaders the American ideal of ordered liberty.
For information about ISI's Honors Program, visit www.isi.org.