This scholarship bears the names of its founders—Timothy J. Sullivan, President Emeritus of the College of William & Mary in Virginia and Christopher Fildes, a Scholar of Balliol College, Oxford, who holds an honorary Doctorate from the University of Sheffield, and has written for many years on finance and public policy. They are both liverymen (i.e. members) of the Drapers’ Company in the City of London.
They met when Mr. Fildes created, with President Sullivan’s support, a scholarship enabling students from a group of English schools to study at William & Mary. This has evolved into a scholarship open to students from William & Mary who wish to study for a year at a leading English university. The founders have now been joined as sponsors by both William & Mary and the Drapers’ Company.
This scholarship provides an exceptional opportunity to study abroad, but the scholars will also be expected to make full use of their time in England and to play an active part in the life of their chosen university. The founders believe that such an opportunity can serve to open eyes and minds, to broaden friendships, and to change lives.
The Drapers’ Company, founded more than 650 years ago, has always been a part of the fabric of the City of London. It was from the first a benevolent institution, helping its members who fell into distress, and though its involvement in the woolen cloth trade, from which it took its name, has now ceased, the essence of the medieval fraternity has remained constant in the traditions of good fellowship and charity.
Today the Company serves as trustee of the many charitable trusts that have been left in its care over the centuries. In particular, it supports educational causes. Its connection with William & Mary traces back to 1955, when the Trustees of Colonial Williamsburg held a dinner in Drapers’ Hall, the Company’s home, to honor Sir Winston Churchill. The scholars will be invited to this Hall and will meet the Company’s senior officers while they are studying in England.
One scholarship award is available to a W&M undergraduate, for study at a top British university. The Sullivan-Fildes Scholarship carries a significant financial award estimated to be approximately $21,000 (including 9,500 GBP paid to the host university), to be used toward any field of study at one of the UK institutions listed below. As a requirement of this scholarship, candidates must enroll in a full year of study in the UK; the scholarship may not be used toward summer study abroad. The scholarship recipient will be selected based upon merit and financial need.
The Sullivan-Fildes Scholar will be expected to make quarterly reports to William & Mary, and meet with Mr. Fildes and members of the Drapers’ Company. At the end of their year, the Sullivan-Fildes Scholar must write a final report and letter of appreciation to the Drapers’ Company and the founders. Upon returning home, each scholar should give informal advice to his or her successor, so that the scholars will come to know one another, as well as the founders.
Scholarships will be available to students who will study for a full year at the following institutions:
University of Birmingham
University of Bristol
University of Cambridge
Cardiff University
University of Exeter
University of Glasgow
Imperial College London
King's College London
London School of Economics and Political Science
University of Nottingham
University of Oxford
Queen Mary University of London
University College London
University of Sheffield
University of Southampton
University of Warwick