The Henry Luce Foundation is excited to announce two major developments to its Luce Scholars Program, which offers promising, public-minded young Americans an immersive cultural experience through professional placement in Asia. We have enlisted the help of an Admissions Advisory Panel to help us design a more open selection process, and we have appointed a planning group of alumni from across the decades to think through a new alumni engagement program. 

As we focus our time and attention on the work of these two task forces, we are pausing the Luce Scholars Program for one year and will not be holding an admissions competition in 2021. This will enable us, and our partner The Asia Foundation, to ensure that the three cohorts whose time abroad has been disrupted by the pandemic will still have the fullest possible Luce Scholar experience. 

We plan to reopen the application process in the fall of 2022 with the next Luce Scholar cohort traveling to Asia during the summer of 2023. 

Gradual adjustments to the selection process over the past few years have laid the foundation for a more extensive transformation that will make the Luce Scholar experience more accessible to a broad range of applicants, reaching beyond the current approach which relies on nominations from 75 partner institutions.

While striving to maintain the personalized engagement for which the Program is known and admired, we will work with an Admissions Advisory Panel to develop a more open application process that invites potential Luce Scholars with more diverse backgrounds and experiences. We are grateful for the support of the Admissions Advisory Panel, which includes leaders from across higher education:

Stephen Lassonde
Director of The Ruth & Harold Newman Office of Prestigious Scholarships & Fellowships, Hunter College, City University of New York

Angel B. Pérez
CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC)

Aly Kassam-Remtulla
Associate Provost for International Affairs and Operations, Princeton University

Ricshawn Adkins Roane
Vice President, Philanthropy & Chief of Staff, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation (2000-2001 Luce Scholar in the Philippines)

The Foundation has also enlisted the help of twelve Luce Scholars alumni—including Foundation Board Directors Terry Adamson and Debra Knopman—to help us design the structure, mission, and activities of the future Luce Scholar Alumni Council. Key areas will include mentoring for Scholars and alumni, participation in the admissions and selection process; local programming; leadership and professional development; and alumni networking.

The members of the Alumni Council planning group are:

Holly Carter (1990-1991 Luce Scholar)
Heidi Brooks (1999-2000 Luce Scholar)
Elizabeth Mandeville (2005-2006 Luce Scholar)
Ouleye Ndoye (2010-2011 Luce Scholar)
Christopher Stanfill (2011-2012 Luce Scholar)
Perla De Anda (2011-2012 Luce Scholar)
Dustin Palmer (2016-2017 Luce Scholar)
Andrew Maguire (2018-2019 Luce Scholar)
Anthony Diep-Rosas (2019-2020 Luce Scholar)
Shivram Viswanathan (2020-2021 Luce Scholar)

2016–17 Luce Scholar Alex McDougle will also join the Foundation as a Luce Scholar Alumni Fellow to support the work of the Program and these two task forces over the next year. Alex spent her Luce year in Cambodia with the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Department of Archaeology and Prehistory.