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W&L Freshmen Hamscher and Mou Chosen as Kemper Scholars

Washington and Lee students Eric Hamscher ’11 and Chengpeng Mou ’11 have been chosen to receive Kemper scholarships. They will join Steve Rivior ’08, Becca Taylor ’09 and Cale Grove ’10 as W&L students participating in the program.

Each year, the James S. Kemper Foundation selects one first-year student from each of its participating schools to serve as Kemper Scholars. “It is very rare for more than one student to be chosen from a single institution in a given year,” said Rob Straughan, associate dean of the Williams School.

Kemper Scholars receive financial aid during their sophomore through senior years and participate in an annual fall conference in Chicago. They are also employed as a not-for-profit intern in Chicago following their sophomore year, and a for-profit internship in a mutually agreed upon location following the junior year.

Hamscher, of Erie, Penn., plans to major in economics, politics or both. He also hopes to become fluent in Spanish and to possibly complete a concentration in the Shepherd Poverty program. Hamscher is currently involved in the Bonner Leader program, Freshman Leadership Committee, Freshman Orientation Committee and Mock Trial. He is a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.

“I am very interested in this Kemper scholarship because I will be able to complete internships within both non-profit and for-profit organizations,” said Hamscher. “I believe the internships will help me to learn different management techniques as well as improve my leadership skills.”

Chengpeng Mou, of Chengdu, China, is interested in majoring in mathematics and economics. He plays second violin in the school orchestra and is leader of the University’s ping-pong team and. He is involved with the Shepherd Poverty program and a new member of the University Scholar program and the R.E. Lee Research program. This spring he will be traveling to Barbados and St. Vincent to study how tourism economy has affected the small Caribbean islands.

Mou believes that his natural intellectual curiosity and his hopes of a future business career make him a good fit for the Kemper Scholars program. “Kemper Scholar Program will no doubt help me in some tremendous ways: it makes me more financially independent, it offers me great internship opportunities, and it gives me access to a wide variety of mentors and motivated peers,” said Mou.

Washington and Lee University is one of only fifteen schools invited to participate in the program.