Skidmore to celebrate promise of international education

Skidmore College will celebrate international education and the College’s special connection to a unique global partner on Friday, Oct. 24, with events to recognize the founders of the Davis United World College (UWC) Scholars Program.

Shelby M.C. Davis, co-founder, and Philip O. Geier, co-founder and executive director of the Davis United World College Scholars Program, will participate in a public panel on “The Promise of International Education” from 3 to 4 p.m. Oct. 24 in Filene Auditorium. Admission is free and open to the public. That evening, at an invitation-only ceremony, Davis and Geier will receive honorary doctor of humane letters degrees from Skidmore.

Skidmore is celebrating the 10^th anniversary of participation in the Davis UWC Scholars Program. When the College applied to participate in the program, fewer than 10 international students were studying at Skidmore and only a few were graduates of United World Colleges. Today, 217 international students call Skidmore home.

Launched in 1962 as an attempt to halt racial and religious conflict and promote cultural understanding, the global community of United World Colleges includes 14 institutions on five continents. Today graduates of any UWC school can matriculate at 90 colleges and universities in the U.S., with support from the largest international scholarship program for undergraduates, the Davis UWC Scholars Program. The program has drawn 5,000 students from nearly 150 countries to America for college education over the past 13 years. In addition, any student may seek funding to support special projects dedicated to advancing world peace through the Davis Projects for Peace program, which has been operating since 2007.

During the afternoon panel, Geier and Davis will discuss the evolution and impact of the Davis UWC Scholars program and the future of international education. Kate Graney, associate professor of government at Skidmore, will moderate the discussion, which will also feature Skidmore graduate Joseph Kaifala ’08, one of the first UWC graduates to attend Skidmore as part of the Davis UWC Scholars program.

Background on the honorees

Philip Geier

Philip Geier is a leader in international education and currently serves as executive director of the Davis United World College Scholars Program, the world’s largest privately funded international scholarship program for undergraduates. With Kathryn Wasserman Davis he helped develop the Projects for Peace initiative begun in 2007, which he currently runs. He is also an independent consultant specializing in strategic innovation for education as well as transformative philanthropy.

Geier earned a B.A. from Williams College (1970) and both an M.A. (1975) and a Ph.D. (1980) from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.  He went on to teach at Dickinson College and serve as a Fulbright lecturer at the Sorbonne in Paris.

His passion for internationalism grew out of that Fulbright year (1977-78), and for more than 30 years he has been committed to fostering citizen diplomacy and international understanding.  Through his career at not-for-profit organizations, foundations and educational institutions (during which he was awarded a second Fulbright), Geier has seized opportunities to build cross-cultural skills and attitudes among peoples throughout the U.S. and around the world.

Geier’s wife, Amy Yeager Geier, is a 1974 Skidmore College graduate. The couple has three children.

Shelby M.C. Davis

Shelby M.C. Davis was the founder of Davis Advisors, a mutual fund management company with more than $60 billion under management now being run by his son Christopher.

Davis received a B.A. degree in American history from Princeton University in 1958. He was a member of Tiger Inn and a reporter for the college newspaper, The Daily Princetonian.

He began his career with the Bank of New York where he worked for eight years, first as a security analyst, then as head of equity research. He was named its youngest vice president since Alexander Hamilton.

Since retiring from Davis Advisors, he has become a major philanthropist.  With Geier, Davis in 2000 founded the Davis UWC Scholars Program, which has since grown to become the world's largest international scholarship program. Davis currently contributes more than $40 million annually to this cause, which to date has supported more than 5,500 scholars on 91 American college and university campuses.

Davis is an international patron of the United World College movement. He has served on the boards of Princeton University, United World College-USA, the Hoover Institution, and the Teton Science School. He has been widely recognized for his philanthropy and awarded numerous honorary degrees.

He and his wife, Gale Lansing Davis, are the parents of six children.

Read more about the upcoming celebration here.