About the Program
The Lloyd C. Gardner Fellowship provides Rutgers undergraduates with the opportunity to deepen their awareness of global issues and to take a prominent role in addressing pressing social issues through policy, law, business, health, academia, politics and other careers. The Fellowship is a competitive, year-long program for juniors in the School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) and students selected for the Fellowship participate in a fall seminar, a spring research project, and participate in numerous events and trips, including a visit to the United Nations and Washington D.C., dinners with faculty and Fellows, and other informal events. The annual Policy Conference showcases the Fellows spring research and the Alumni Council holds an annual spring event. Fellows also receive a $1000 scholarship and research funds.
The Fellowship Program is named for Professor Lloyd C. Gardner, a distinguished scholar and historian at Rutgers. Professor Gardner received his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin. Professor Gardner joined the Rutgers University history department in 1963. Now Professor Emeritus, Dr. Gardner retired as a Board of Governors Professor and the Charles and Mary Beard Professor of History. The author or editor of many books and countless essays and reviews, Professor Gardner remains one of the nation's preeminent historians of American foreign policy and diplomatic history.
Rutgers alum John Adams RC’65 gave two million dollars in honor of a mentor in the history department to benefit promising students in the School of Arts and Sciences. “I wanted a program in which exceptional students would be challenged,” Adams said. The Lloyd C. Gardner Fellowship Program in Leadership and Social Policy provides the opportunity for sustained engagement with substantial and challenging issues of the 21st century.
Professor Bathory recalls: Planning for the Gardner Fellows Program began in 2011 and it soon became obvious that it would have something to do with the Arab Spring. Democracy and Democratic Revolution became the title/topic of the course and examples and issues, potential speakers and topics quickly emerged and the structure of the seminar grew.
Learn how the experience of one undergraduate—inspired by his professor—set the stage for a program that's preparing students for lives of service and leadership. Political science professor 
The inaugural class of Lloyd Gardner Fellows set the standard for years to come: visiting the United Nations in the fall and Washington, D.C. in the spring, scholars were exposed to the work that takes place on both a global and national level to address issues of democracy and human rights.