Rising Senior Earns Scholarship Gold

Mae Buck ’26 was recently awarded a Beinecke Scholarship, which provides $35,000 in support of an advanced degree in the arts, humanities, or social sciences to exceptional undergraduates. Buck, a geography-anthropology major from Chattanooga, Tennessee, hopes to use the funds to pursue a PhD in one of these subjects after she graduates next year.

“The Beinecke Scholarship selection committee is looking for students who demonstrate superior standards of intellectual ability, scholastic achievement, and personal promise during their undergraduate career,” said Beinecke Scholarship Program Director Matthew Loar. “Mae more than meets those criteria, and we are excited to welcome her to our program.”

“I was with my friends in the library studying for finals when I saw the email notifying me that I had won,” Buck recalled. “I felt elated! It was a complete joy and relief. I was extremely pleased to share it with my friends immediately.”

Buck’s research interests include social movements, the politics of solidarity, and urban political economy. Currently, she is examining the connections between the histories of the Black freedom struggle and contemporary activist efforts toward economic cooperation in Mississippi. She began this work during an immersive 10-week, interdisciplinary research program last summer at the University of Mississippi.

Outside of her academic work, Buck serves as a peer consultant at the Writing Center and Co-Chair of the Vassar Working Student Coalition, an organization of student workers and allies dedicated to improving student labor conditions on campus. She said she was “incredibly grateful” to all those who had shown her new ways of learning and thinking.

“Although many professors have changed my life, I would like to thank Vassar professors Brian Godfrey and John Elrick for recommending me for this award, as well as my mentor at the University of Mississippi, Professor Amy McDowell,” Buck said. “Everyone at the Writing Center—WC Director Matt Schultz, my fellow peer consultants, and the students who come to the center, especially—have helped me find great personal meaning in approaching a practice of writing that comes close to a notion of collective study.”

“We are thrilled to celebrate Vassar’s 13th Beinecke Scholar and first since 2021—a remarkable student whose achievement reflects both her outstanding academic promise and the values at the heart of a liberal arts education,” said Stacy Bingham, Associate Dean of the College for Career Education, whose office coordinates and supports the campus endorsement process for nationally competitive fellowships. “This honor is a testament to Mae’s hard work, curiosity, and vision for the future, and we couldn’t be more proud!”

Loar noted that all 93 students nominated for the award this year were “exceptionally strong.” Twenty of them, including Buck, were selected as Beinecke Scholars. Awardees have six years after graduating from college to use the funds.

Buck said it was important to continue her education after Vassar “because graduate study is one possible route for continuing this radical project of learning that I have begun at the College.”