When he was 23, Edward O. Wilson was named a Junior Fellow in Harvard University’s Society of Fellows.
The Society, patterned after the prize Fellows of Trinity College in Cambridge University, gave three years of unrestricted financial support to young men (and, in later years, young women) who demonstrated exceptional scholarship potential. Junior Fellows were encouraged to study any subject, conduct any form of research, go anywhere in the world their world their interests directed them.
The Society had 24 Junior Fellows. Eight new ones were appointed each year to replace those departing. The Society had nine Senior Fellows — professors who were mentors.
The appointment was a watershed, and Wilson said two things about it. First, it was a gift, an opportunity of a lifetime. Second, the effect on him was that it raised expectations. What he had expected to be able to do with his life changed.
I don’t think that our public schools can compete with Harvard. But I do wish we could encourage children to think about what they would do if they could choose any subject and do any form of research.
• Source: Edward O. Wilson, Naturalist; Washington, D.C.: Island Press/Shearwater Books, 1994, p. 144.
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