Davidson Fellows are individuals who have received an extremely generous scholarship from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development as a result of having completed noteworthy work in any of the following fields: mathematics, science, technology, music, literature, philosophy or "Outside the Box." Moreover, the work must have the potential to benefit society.

The Davidson Fellows Scholarship and the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, started by Bob and Jan Davidson, aim to nurture talented young people. So far the Davidson's have been very successful in helping support gifted youths and in bringing the issue of gifted education into the spotlight. Because of the focus on young people, applicants to become Davidson Fellows must be under 18 by October of the year they are applying for.

Less than 20 scholarships are handed out in the nation every year making the Davidson Fellows Scholarship highly prestigious and selective. The scholarships are divided up into $50,000 (these individuals are Davidson Fellows Laureates); $25,000; and $10,000. The magnitude of the scholarships, as you can imagine, make the Davidson Fellows Scholarship all the more coveted. The scholarships can be used for many educational pursuits and, in my estimation, are most commonly used to pay off college.

The 2005 Davidson Fellows on the steps of the Library of Congress before the reception (Photo by John Zhou).

Scholarship recipients are generally divided into two groups:

1.) The top high school students in the nation
2.) Young prodigies, often in music, who have displayed tremendous raw talent from an early age

In order to be considered for the Davidson Fellows Scholarship, one must submit a "portfolio" of work in one of the areas mentioned in the first paragraph. In this respect, you are being evaluated not as a whole (the way that colleges, for example, would evaluate you) but rather you are being evaluated for a specific work.

The submissions to the Davidson Fellows tends to fall into several categories:

1.) Research in mathematics, science, and technology that is conducted at universities - the Davidson Fellows usually have done award-winning research for several years and are veterans or winners of other major competitions such as the Intel Science Talent Search and the Siemens Competition

2.) Musical compositions or performances

3.) Literary works

4.) "Outside the Box" - this is a term coined by the Davidson Institute for Talent development reflecting a submission that encompasses more than one area

For any of the submissions, there are a variety of accompanying materials including a number of essay questions such as "What inspired you to pursue this work?" and "What difficulties did you encounter and how did you handle them?"

There were a couple of larger essays as well centered around the benefit to society of the submission and the significance of the submission. To top it off, there is also a videotape that must be submitted by the applicant that addresses similar questions.