May 18, 2009               
 
AMHERST, Mass.—Amherst College junior Andrew T. Werner, a philosophy major from Houston, Texas, is one of just 21 undergraduates from across the United States to have been awarded a 2009 Beinecke Scholarship. Each year, approximately 100 colleges and universities are invited to nominate a student for the prize; winners receive $4,000 before entering graduate school and an additional $30,000 for graduate study.

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Andrew T. Werner ’10
Werner plans to pursue his doctorate in philosophy and then teach philosophy to college students. He said he’s particularly interested in exploring with his pupils Georg Wilhem Friedrich Hegel’s idea of absolute spirit or Willard Van Orman Quine’s idea of knowledge and “trying to show them that how we view our knowledge has vital ramifications for how we view society.” The award, he added, will enable him to accomplish that and more: “The Beinecke scholarship would go a long way in helping me understand how to best integrate my knowledge and my actions, to hopefully spend my life encouraging others to do the same.”

At Amherst, Werner has worked as a student security officer, tutored fellow undergraduates in writing and logic and taught English as a second language at the town library. He also served as a debate instructor for several organizations, including Victory Briefs, LLC; the University of Texas’ National Institute of Forensics; The Hockaday School; the Dallas Debate Institute; and the National Debate Forum. In addition, he taught oral English at Hefei Agricultural University in Anhui, China, last spring.

The Beinecke Scholarship Program was established in 1971 by the Board of Directors of The Sperry and Hutchinson Company to honor Edwin, Frederick and Walter Beinecke and to provide substantial scholarships for the graduate education of students of exceptional promise. Since 1975, the program has selected more than 410 college juniors from 97 different schools to support during graduate study in the arts, humanities and social sciences at any accredited university.

Founded in 1821, Amherst is a highly selective, coeducational liberal arts college with approximately 1,600 students from most of the 50 states and more than 30 other countries. Considered one of the nation’s best educational institutions, Amherst awards the B. A. degree in 34 fields of study.
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