Dear Friends,
The Foundation is saddened to announce that the recent administrative turmoils at Harvard have limited our fundraising abilities. Therefore, we have no choice except to put the Roosevelt Scholars Program on hiatus for the summer of 2024.
“We cannot always build the future for our youth,
but we can build our youth for the future.”
– Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Address at the University of Pennsylvania
September 20, 1940
The Foundation will select four to six rising sophomores to come to Cambridge over 10 weeks. Each Scholar will then choose a field of research from a list of potential projects chosen by the Foundation in areas that were important to the Roosevelts: applied economics, medicine and public health, government, history, social sciences, the environment and women and gender studies.
These studies will be supervised by a faculty member or graduate student, who will not only guide the Scholar’s research, but function as a valued mentor, both for the summer and going forward during the student’s Harvard career. In addition to their research, students will participate in an academic practicum designed by Dr. Cynthia Koch, the former director of the FDR Presidential Library, and now Historian in Residence to the Foundation, entitled Framing the American Experience. Through in-class debates, seminars, remote visits and in-person field trips to historic sites, this program explores how our democracy depends on developing an informed citizenry, and how the events of the past continue to shape our present and future.
Monday AM: Monday PM: Seminar: Framing the American Experience
Monday PM: Seminar: Framing the American Experience
Tuesday-Thursday: Project Research
Friday: Research or Field Trip
Weekends: At leisure
Cohort I enjoying the vistas of the Hudson Valley
Comments from Past Roosevelt Scholars
“I initially did not have a good foundation of the history of the United States. However, the contextual readings, movies, documentaries, debates, and discussions I had about American history allowed me to make many deep reflections about civic life and duty… Ever since, I have been able to engage in multiple conversations about contemporary American politics and draw parallels between modern-day events and history. This is an eye opening experience that I will always remember.
Hebatalla Mohamed ’23, RS Cohort II
“I hope that other students will be able to have the same opportunity through the FDR Foundation, because my experience has been transformative.”
Jaden Deal ’23, RS Cohort II
When I first joined the FDR Foundation’s Roosevelt Scholars program, I was more skeptical than excited. What I expected to be a possibly quirky FDR-centered American history course with a flood of readings and a research component encapsulated the highlight of my Harvard experience so far, as well as the best summer of my life.
Eunice Chon. ’24 RS Cohort IV
Partial List of Previous Summer Research Opportunities
• Research Assistant in Government: Administrative Burden of U.S. Social Policies
• Research Assistant in Government: Accountability, Election and Corruptions in Developing • • Countries (Latin America and Beyond)
• Research Assistant in the History of Science Research Assistant in International Development and Climate Change
• Research Assistant in Education: Colleges and Mental Health
• Research Assistant in Education Policy: Higher Education and Economic Mobility
• Research Assistant in Government: Decolonizing the State
• Research Assistant in Religion: American Religious History
• Russian-Language Research Assistant in History and Government
• Research Assistant in Sociology: (In)Security among Young University Graduates in Spain and the United States
• Research Assistant in Government: Democratizing Political Parties
• Research Assistant in Government: Women Entrepreneurs in Africa
• Research Assistant In Government: Expressions of “Personalism” in Democracies
• Research Assistant in History: Mapping Past Societies
• Research Assistant in History: Japanese or Chinese Source Material
• Research Assistant in International Relations
• Research Assistant in Government: Refugee Crises and Local Government in the Middle East
• Research Assistant in Government/Economics: Public Goods Provision in Brazil and the United States
• Research Assistant in Sociology: China and the One Child Policy
• Research Assistant in Religion and Society: African American Religion in the American West
• Research Assistant in Government: Public Diplomacy, the U.S., China, and the Middle East
• Research Assistant in English: Anachronism and Historicization in the Anglophone World
• Research Assistant in Government: Migration in Developing Countries
• Research Assistant in Government: Politics and Education in Mexico
• Research Assistant in Government: Political Parties in Europe
• Research Assistant in Government: Crime and Corruption in Brazil
• Research Assistant in Economic History/East Asian Languages & Literature
• Research Assistant for Work on Native American Oral Literature
• Research Assistant in Economics: Rohingya Refugee Camps
• Research Assistant in Government: Education and Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Research Assistant in Political Economy: Taxation in Developing Countries
• Research Assistant Position: Digital Humanities 3D-Modeling Project
• Research Assistant in Government: Criminal Organizations in Mexico
• Research Assistant in Government: Technology Impacts on International Relations
• Research Assistant in Education: Refugee and Emergency Education
• Research Editor in West African Arabic Poetry
• Research Assistant in Economics: Education and Gender Inequality
• Research Assistant in Economics: Women in the Workforce
• Research Assistant in Trees and the Urban Ecology
• Research Assistant in Education: Immigrant Studies
• Research Assistant in Economics: Health Care Providers
• Research Assistant in Economics: Government Distribution of Goods and Services
• Editorial Position in US History: Glossary Writer
• Editorial Position in US History: Image Researcher
• Qualitative Research Assistant: Culture Institutions and Society
• Data Assistant in Government: Religion and Politics Book Project
A more detailed Program Pedagogy and Academic Rationale can be found HERE