Michael Roberts 
Dartmouth College
Major: Music
Michael was a 1995 McNair Fellow (see 1995
abstract) and served as our 1996 Peer Advisor. He wrote this article for our 1996 Symposium Program.
Unexpected Benefits
Continued involvement in the McNair Program has helped me realize its extreme importance in a number of areas. As a fellow in the summer of 1995, my research and writing skills developed as did my knowledge about graduate schools and their admission processes. These were the expected and intended goals of the program. Equally as significant but somewhat unexpected was the intellectual environment into which I was placed and its effect on me. Being challenged by a mentor or professor through assignments, lectures, or discussions was a norm in my college experience, but never before had I been with a group whose probing intellectual curiosity inspired me to a new level of critical thinking about my work and about the world.
As the peer advisor for this summer, I am fascinated to see the similarities and differences between this year's experience and last year's. The program has progressed administratively and in its coverage of important topics. What has remained the same is the intellectual environment created by the exceptional minds that are a part of the program. I am privileged to be a part of the McNair program this summer and to be continually inspired and challenged by the excellence that it attracts.
