The following story originally appeared on the Charles Center website. – Ed.

The 1693 Scholars Program at William & Mary celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, honoring two decades of dedicated faculty mentoring, research support and vibrant, hands-on programming.

Among the eight 1693 Scholars in the Class of 2025 will be the program’s 100th graduate, who will join a community of alumni scholars that includes artists, cheesemakers, union organizers and enough healthcare professionals to care for the whole group, according to 1693 Director and Chancellor Professor of Biology Dan Cristol.

“The core mission of the program has not changed after two decades – attracting the best students to William & Mary and providing them with opportunities to exceed their dreams while sharing their merits with campus,” Cristol wrote in a recently published 20th-anniversary edition of the program’s annual report. The program allows students “to get so much more out of college than just classes and clubs.”

Fewer than 10 incoming students are chosen to be 1693 Scholars each year through a lengthy and rigorous selection process. Though small in number, Cristol said that the scholars’ impact on campus is larger than life, and the bonds they form with one another — and students and faculty across the university — are lifelong.

By providing students with a $6,000 research stipend, scholarship funding and a home base in Murray House to “study, cook, and do their laundry,” the program prides itself on attracting exceptional students and allowing them to “share their talents with the whole university,” Cristol said. It is important that these students have the chance to enrich the wider campus community, he added.

1693 scholar Eva Jaber ‘28, a prospective English and government double major who is passionate about music and spending time with her fellow scholars, added that the contributions these scholars make will transcend campus boundaries.

“Just being a part of a community where there are people who are working towards bettering the world around them in really special ways and knowing that I have access to these people as friends and resources has been a source of inspiration and comfort for me as I adjust to college life,” Jaber said.

When she first was invited to apply to the program, Jaber said, “I just felt so drawn to it and felt like I really could belong. It was that extra push that helped me choose William & Mary.”

Jaber said her favorite part of the program is the people.

“Every time I have a conversation with someone in my cohort or someone in the program, I just leave feeling inspired and feeling really grateful that I get to be surrounded by people who are so community minded and just so lovely,” she said.

Jeremiah Esteban ‘27, a Stamps 1693 scholar pursuing a neuroscience major with a minor in visual arts, shared that the program has given him his closest friends and a sense of belonging, as scholars “encourage each other, give each other a hard time but also just live life together.”

“It has definitely pushed me harder than I would have gone before. It has helped me to really pursue my academics and career and be ambitious in what I want to do, want to study,” Esteban said. “But it has also provided that comfort, that basis of stability, a place — a literal house to come back to — but also people to come back to and share my struggles with and work with. That’s something beautiful that I really appreciate.”

The power of place and a passionate community is something the program cultivates, Esteban said. 1693 Associate Director Kim Van Deusen pointed to the selection process, which is designed to create connections among students and foster a close-knit community from the very beginning.

“We’re a small program, and intentionally so,” Van Deusen said. “We start during the selection process, so our students get to know each other and even during our on-campus finalist weekend, they connect with one another. Students find that when they get here, they already have a community and space they feel connected to.”

Many 1693 scholars are affiliated with other Charles Center scholar programs — Monroe Scholars, Sharpe Community Scholars and William & Mary Scholars Undergraduate Research Experience (WMSURE), Van Deusen said.  “We want our students to know about all opportunities and what’s possible here,” She added.

Biology and public policy major Kate Carline ‘26 expressed gratitude for the 1693 community, especially because “as an out-of-stater, it was really nerve-wracking to come all the way to Virginia where it seems like everyone here knows each other.”

As an incoming student, Carline said she found herself a part of an instant, nurturing cohort that included juniors and seniors, as well as alumni she could “talk to for advice.” In short, the informal and supportive peer mentoring offered through the program is an invaluable resource. Coming full circle, “now that I am a junior,” Carline said, “I like getting to help mentor the freshmen.”

Empowered to pursue research through the program, Carline works in two campus labs: a biology research lab overseen by Chancellor Professor of Biology Margaret Saha that investigates bioengineering and bacteriophage, and a student-run public policy research group, the Geopolitics of Technology Initiative, investigating the future of technology leadership and the potentials of biotechnology.

Carline is thankful for the opportunities the 1693 program has afforded, and she holds a soft spot for the weekly Friday lunches at Murray House where scholars and guest speakers get the chance to informally connect, discuss ideas and be curious together.

“What you can accomplish as an undergraduate, and the faith and responsibility that professors and other leaders in the community will put in you, is amazing and something I’m really grateful for,” Carline said. “I’m not waiting to do something as a graduate student, or for post-grad to do something with my life. I feel like as an undergraduate I can actually accomplish things here at William & Mary, and that people want to support me.”

In the coming years, Cristol and Van Deusen hope to expand the program to accommodate 10 incoming scholars annually, but, Cristol emphasized, “it’ll never be so big that we can’t keep in touch with everybody. That makes us very happy.”

It is a shared passion for learning and research that brings these exceptional students from all over the world to the 1693 Scholars Program, but it is their shared appreciation for each other and for their community that ties them together.

The program’s first 20 years were made possible by the support and engagement of “students, donors, family members, partners, and friends,” Cristol wrote in the annual report. “I am excited to see what the next two decades and beyond hold for our scholars, alumni, and program.”