“I feel I have been courageous in my chosen field and have, with sustained focus, done work to benefit society.”
Jefferson Lievense, another 1975 Beinecke Scholar, is today a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a professional organization of over 2,000 peer-elected accomplished engineers that provides leadership and expertise for projects linking engineering, technology, and quality of life. His story illustrates the unique character of the Beinecke Scholarship Program.
Jeff recalls being thoroughly surprised when he heard that he had received the Beinecke Scholarship. He was a chemical engineering major at the University of Michigan, and yes, he had written an essay detailing his aspiration of addressing problems related to pollution, energy, and food in his professional life, but the scholarship was something of a faraway dream to him.
The Beinecke award enabled Jeff to complete his undergraduate studies completely debt-free and attend graduate school at Purdue University. The financial assistance allowed him to attend professional conferences as well as purchase expensive scientific books.
Although his science concentration and work in the field of biotechnology would today fall outside of the Beinecke program’s parameters, the essence and practice of Jeff’s career align with the current program’s values. While working for a San Diego company, Jeff was recruited by the University of California as an industry voice for a short course offered to students. Finding the experience frustrating (“it was purely academic, not well informed by practical industry experience, with instructors teaching from textbooks”), he took it upon himself to rejigger the course offering. He volunteered to recruit a handful of industry peers to bring real-world experience to the student learning experience, and today, Jeff’s revamped course model continues to enrich student education. Enthusiasm for the course has increased, demonstrated through exit surveys with consistently high ratings and enrollment expanding over 200%.
In a box of keepsakes, Jeff came across correspondence between the first program director, Polly Bunting, and himself. Revisiting these letters many years later, he was struck by the director’s personalized and genuinely interested responses to his updates, noticing that on one of the letters, Polly jotted a postscript mentioning that she hoped to meet Jeff during an upcoming visit to Ann Arbor. In another, she responded thoughtfully to his observation that it would be helpful for scholars (and applicants) to learn more about the Beinecke Scholarship Program. She informed Jeff that she had asked the Sperry and Hutchinson Company to draft a pamphlet with information about the Beinecke brothers and the Memorial Scholarship Program—likely resulting in the earliest printed public material about the program. Her emphasis on taking the time to develop relationships with Beinecke Scholars continues to this day. And, following Polly’s precedent, Jeff carries forward the spirit of the Beinecke Scholarship Program with his mentorship of students and colleagues, as well as serving on Michigan’s Chemical Engineering Advisory Board and several committees of the National Academy of Engineering.