Andy Allen is first recipient of Sullivan Scholarship

by Jon Shaw at the Reves Center

Andy Allen '11 is preparing to relish everything the old world has to offer. As the first recipient of the Timothy J. Sullivan Scholarship, he will spend the fall semester of his junior year at the University of Nottingham in England.

The scholarship enabling him to go is made possible through the generosity of Christopher Fildes, a financial journalist in London and long-time benefactor of the College, and former William & Mary President Timothy J. Sullivan, for whom it is named.

Fildes established the scholarship in collaboration with the Drapers' Company, a more than 600-year-old English guild that today administers charitable trusts on behalf of schools and non-profit institutions, in honor of Sullivan, who served as the College's 25^th president from 1992-2005.

Sullivan, who was installed as a member of the Draper's Livery in 2003, is one of few Americans to receive this honor. It enables a William & Mary student to study up to a year at selected universities in the United Kingdom. The former president was a strong advocate for international education during his 13-year tenure.

"The fact that William & Mary is a global institution defines our existence in almost every way," Sullivan said. "If William & Mary students, in the course of their time here, don't get comfortable with that fact, the College will not be doing for them what it should, which is help them to succeed in the world environment."

Allen, an economics major at William & Mary, will continue his studies at the University of Nottingham, famed for its economics program.