While there are only 200 students in the Smittcamp Honors program, four of their students were elected to serve in Associate Students, Inc. (ASI), which is designed to represent the more than 20,000 students at Fresno State.
Despite the disproportionate representation, these students seem to be essential to the well being not only of Fresno State, but of the Valley.
“The reason this program was created was because President Welty saw the ridiculous brain drain that happens every year,” Director of The Smittcamp Family Honors College, Honora Howell Chapman said. “Thousands of students leave the Valley and they don’t come back after they graduate, because they get used to life on the coast or elsewhere and they think it is better and they don’t want to come back.”
Chapman said that many students decide to leave the Valley instead of opening shops, creating businesses, and “doing something to motivate [the Fresno] economy.”
Earl and Muriel Smittcamp and their family donated $1 million, which is what funded The Smittcamp Family Honors College in 1997.
According to Chapman, “President [John] Welty asked Earl and Mariel Smittcamp, ‘Can you help me create an honors college, so that we can invite the best and brightest to stay in Fresno and hopefully those students will then become the basis of a growing economy?’”
“And that’s what President Welty was trying to do, was to keep kids from going elsewhere. And by doing that, you then hopefully have stronger teachers, stronger business people,” Chapman added.
Because Smittcamp students receive many benefits to increase their chances of success, some students have questioned if they can represent the average student, and know about the difficulties that Fresno State students encounter.
“Just because I don’t pay my tuition doesn’t mean that I don’t understand the value of a dollar, or that I have never suffered a hardship, or that I don’t work for my own money, or that I don’t struggle to be here to make ends meet and to do a good job,” ASI Executive Vice President and Smittcamp recipient Selena Farnesi said. “I am still a student here. I understand the struggles of students here. And I think I can accurately represent those students.”
Farnesi added, “Being a representative is not about your own personal experience. Being a good representative is about talking to the people you represent and finding out what their experience is.”
Farnesi says she works at ASI 20 hours a week, and she also has a second job outside of campus.
According to Chapman, before Smittcamp was founded, “there weren’t even enough people interested in doing this kind of work because they are too busy doing other stuff.”
Because Smittcamp requires its students to have a certain number of volunteer hours, some students fulfill their volunteer hours by serving at ASI.
Students who were granted a Smittcamp scholarship in 2010 had an average unweighted GPA of 3.92 (weighted GPA of 4.46).
The Smittcamp Family Honors College accepts 50 students every year, and a total of 200 students at any given time. As part of their scholarship, these students are granted free in-state tuition, a stipend up to $1100 for a computer, $200 for insurance and sometimes free campus parking.
According to their website, honor courses are required to have 25 students or less. Smittcamp students also receive priority registration and access to the Honors College Office and its sources.
Students also receive interaction with University President Welty at his university home.
According to Chapman, 70 percent of the students selected are from the four areas in Fresno County. The other 30 percent come from other parts of California. A small number are from out of state and one student that she can remember came out of the country.
“Some however, choose to go somewhere for graduate school, but they may eventually come back,” Chapman said. “We don’t force them to stay, so there is no contract that says you must stay.”
According to Chapman, Smittcamp students “are very reluctant to reveal what they are because they don’t want people to be jealous or to actually outright hate them.”
According to Farnesi, Smittcamp students serving in student government are proud of their Smittcamp membership.
“None of them were shy as far as I know about sharing their involvement,” Farnesi said. “I am very forthcoming about being involved in Smittcamp, because quite frankly, it’s an honor.”
