Release date: March 10, 2006
Contact: Beverly Cox Clark at 404-712-8780 or beverly.clark@emory.edu

Emory Students Selected For 2006 Bobby Jones Award

Four Emory University seniors, Bennett Hilley, Patrick Mayne, Eric Teasdale and Ruth Vaughn, have been chosen to receive the Robert T. Jones Jr. Memorial Scholarship Fund Award for a year of study at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. St. Andrews, founded in 1411, is Emory’s sister institution.

Widely known as the Bobby Jones Scholarship, the award was established in 1976 and recognizes individuals who will be excellent representatives of Emory at St. Andrews. Qualities required to fulfill this ambassadorship include intellectual excellence, a record of significant leadership, and academic interests that can be pursued through the offerings at St. Andrews. The scholars receive full tuition and a travel stipend for their year of study. In addition, four St. Andrews students are chosen to spend a year at Emory.

Bennett Hilley

Hilley is a Spanish and art history major from Atlanta who is part of the Emory Scholars Program as the recipient of a Robert W. Woodruff Scholarship, the most prestigious undergraduate merit award. She plans to pursue either a master's degree in art history or museum and gallery studies while at St. Andrews, as well as learn how to play golf in the heart of the sport's birthplace. While at Emory, Hilley has served as president of Outdoor Emory, the university's largest student group, and as undergraduate chair of the President's Commission on the Status of Women. Hilley has been an intern at The Carter Center and the Latin American Association in Atlanta, where she taught English classes to adults. She also has worked in special collections at Emory's Woodruff Library.

Patrick Mayne

Mayne is an international studies and music major from Marietta, Ga., who is an Emory Dean's Achievement Scholar. He plans to travel extensively and pursue either a master's degree in health and human geography or take a broad range of cultural classes while at St. Andrews. He is a two-year member of the BASE residential hall on Emory's Clairmont Campus that is dedicated to promoting the convergence of academic, service and ethical activities within a community environment. An accomplished tuba player, Mayne has participated in several Emory music ensembles. He is as an administrative assistant with Emory's instrumental music program and works closely with the Atlanta Youth Wind Ensemble. He has held an internship in the democracy program of The Carter Center, and is an active volunteer with the Ashraya Initiative for Children, a student-run home for street children in Pune, India, founded by Emory students. He has volunteered at My House, a home for medically fragile infants in Atlanta, and is a founding participant in Music and Mentoring, a program promoting instrumental instruction in south Atlanta.

Eric Teasdale

Teasdale is a political science major from Penacook, N.H. Teasdale deferred acceptance to law school to take part in the Bobby Jones Scholarship, and expects to earn a master's degree in international security studies while at St. Andrews. He also plans to travel extensively throughout Europe for the first time. Teasdale is president of the Residence Hall Association at Emory and is a senior resident advisor. Teasdale also organized the Emory "Soup Kitchen," an annual sandwich-making drive for the Atlanta Food Bank that resulted in nearly 12,000 sandwiches last fall. He currently serves on Emory's Relay for Life steering committee for the American Cancer Society and is helping to recruit teams from every campus residence hall as well as faculty and staff. In addition to his volunteer work, Teasdale works as a manager at Emory's Student Activity and Academic Center.

Ruth Vaughn

Vaughn is a religion major from Memphis, Tenn., and recipient of a Robert W. Woodruff Scholarship. While at St. Andrews, she plans to study at the university's School of Divinity and School of International Relations to pursue her interests in how religion influences international relations and how it can be used as a tool in conflict resolution. Vaughan also plans to travel and take part in the many traditions at St. Andrews. She currently is president of RACES, a student organization that promotes dialogue about race issues between different cultural groups on campus. Vaughan, also a member of BASE hall, has worked as an intern at The Carter Center and is a member of the Volunteer Emory staff working on issues of homelessness. She participated in Emory's Journeys of Reconciliation trip to South Africa in 2004.

Recipients are selected by a committee of faculty, administrators and trustees of the Robert T. Jones Committee as well as former Jones scholars. The late Bobby Jones, an internationally renowned golfer, was an Emory University School of Law alumnus remembered by those who knew him as an extraordinary man of rare loyalty, compassion and integrity.

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For more than a decade Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system.

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