COLUMBUS -- After volunteering at a local hospital when he was younger, Charles Thomas knew he wanted to use his life to help others. When he joined The Ohio State University’s Mount Leadership Society, Thomas told the Board of Trustees at its March 2 meeting, he found students who shared his same desire to improve peoples’ lives.

“The person I am now is what the community has made me,” said Thomas, a Mount Scholar and a physical therapy major from New Orleans, La. Thomas said he enjoys the Mount Leadership Society, a Scholars program designed to encourage community service and leadership, because he is encouraged to “become a better person” by participating in outreach programs as well as receiving a top education.

As a part of Ohio State’s goal to enroll 20 percent of incoming freshmen into Scholars programs, the university has created four new programs scheduled to begin this fall, Dan Farrell, associate provost for Honors and Scholars programming and director of the Honors & Scholars Center, told the trustees.

The new Scholars programs – Biological Sciences, Communication Technology, Undecided Liberal Arts and Tomorrow’s Teachers – will give students a chance to live with others who share similar academic goals and career interests.

“The Scholars programs are highly specialized living-learning centers,” Farrell said. “These students are not just living together. This program is much more substantive.”

Aside from living with fellow Scholars, each student receives mentoring and faculty support, enhanced career planning and graduate school preparation, guaranteed enrollment into selected first-year classes with other Scholars and enriched study approaches, such as study abroad and independent research opportunities.

Currently, 460 Ohio State students participate in one of the four existing Scholars programs – Health Sciences, Humanities, Arts Interdisciplinary and the Mount Leadership Society. The Mount Leadership Society is in its second year, while the other three programs began this past fall.

Students accepted into the Scholar programs typically must have an ACT composite score between 25 and 28 or a SAT combined score between 1140 and 1280, and rank in the top 20 percent of their high school class. Only new first quarter freshman students who begin at Ohio State in Autumn Quarter are eligible to apply for these programs. Incoming students eligible for Honors programs at Ohio State are not eligible for the Scholars programs.

According to Joe Gilroy, a Humanities Scholar and an English and linguistics major from Chicago, Ill., the Humanities Scholars program was the deciding factor in his decision to attend Ohio State. “It’s been one of the best decisions I have made so far,” he told the trustees.

His favorite aspects of the program are sharing a close environment with the other Scholars as well as having an “incredible” adviser who offers career guidance and academic support.

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