Ohio University in Athens has created a new academic enrichment program for women to honor Margaret Boyd, its first woman graduate. Maggie Boyd earned a bachelor’s degree in 1873 and two years later was the first woman to earn a master’s degree at the university. She then taught at Cincinnati Wesleyan College for Young Women and served as a high school principal in Martinsville, Indiana, and Athens, Ohio. She died in 1905 at the age of 60.
The university plans to install the first Margaret Boyd Scholars in the coming spring semester. The four-year scholars program hopes to enroll 20 new students each year and to have a total of 80 women Margaret Boyd Scholars by 2016. Students selected for the program will participate in a first-year seminar, a customized residential learning experience as sophomores, an internship or study abroad opportunity as juniors, and a capstone senior year seminar.
Patricia McSteen, associate dean of students and director of the program, states, “The basis of the program is to help develop women as leaders on campus and beyond through opportunity, access, mentoring and networking. We will strive to create a diverse cohort where the women will learn from and support one another while engaging our faculty, staff, students and alumni. We look to choose women to participate who are active agents of change on campus. We hope that women will be involved in other things on campus such as athletics, Greek life, student senate, various community service, undergraduate research and more.”