Carlton Rounds is without doubt one of the most exceptional and gifted mentors I have had in my time as a graduate and postgraduate student. I became acquainted with Mr Rounds in his capacity as a selector for the Program in International Education (PIE), through which foreign students, on grounds of their academic prowess, social skill and aspirations towards nation building, are chosen for a year’s study at Bard College in New York State. This forward thinking institute gathers gifted young people from areas of democratic transition and supports them for a one year term of high intensity academics while simultaneously enrolling them in a robust schedule of activism, arts, and social interaction. This program has helped to influence and to develop a generation of globally educated and intellectually inclusive leaders, which has made a profound impact on both the learning community at Bard as well as the home institutions of many of these non-North American students. As such, students selected in the program grow into ambassadorial roles, representing cultural and moral aspects of their respective countries and ideally strengthening ties between their native land and their host, the United States.
It is imperative to mention that the recent success of this program saw numerous individuals play their parts in terms of funding and seeing to the welfare of the selected students during their year-long stay in the United States, but it is Mr. Rounds who deserves a large share of the credit for this. As a selector he displayed keen social and academic vision and an acute sense of character, identifying both obvious and dormant traits in students attesting to their ability to exist in a strange environment for two semesters and to both adapt and to assimilate to such an environment. While many of these PIE students would benefit greatly from their experience at Bard College, they would also leave lasting contributions to both Bard and PIE itself, ensuring its continued success into the future. As such, they prove themselves to be worthy investments and these investments were initially recognized through the efforts of Mr. Rounds, who had the arduous task of traveling to countries in Eastern Europe and Southern Africa to interview large numbers of hopeful applicants and selecting the few among the many worthy ones who would eventually earn the scholarship.
In times of international change and conflict, merely selecting such students from countries with young or developing democracies is on its own not enough to ensure a progressive tenure in an established democracy such as the United States, or more specifically, a liberal milieu such as Bard College itself. Mr. Rounds showed immense fortitude in “following up” on his PIE selections, so to speak. He practiced guidance, sensitivity and patience to the inevitable culture shock most students would experience both adjusting to a new environment as well as returning to their home countries after their time with the program. He showed transparency and grace in times of conflict-which is inevitable in such cases when there is difficulty on the part of the foreigner adjusting to his/her new environment-and his methods of resolution were fair, just and generous and above all, consistent to everyone. There was democracy in his approach and thinking when he dealt with the students he selected that to my mind is rare in such prestigious eruditions where there has been the regrettable dominance of a mere “deliver the goods” theory imposed on many students selected for such honors.
The cosmopolitan nature of Mr. Rounds, an academic as well as an artist and performer, appealed to students from various backgrounds and he could nurture interests in them as varied as political sciences, historical debate and studies in theater, film and media. On this note I must take personal leave to mention that due largely to the incredible support of Mr. Rounds, I was recognized and honored with a full scholarship as a resident playwright with the famous New York Stage and Film Company. Held annually at Vassar College summer programs, this program is recognized as the training ground for emerging artists from the Broadway stage community and the professional film industry. I was able to accept and fulfill this scholarship at the end of my time with PIE and Bard College, and Mr. Rounds was also involved in assisting me extend my stay in the United States to accommodate my experience with New York Stage and Film. I must add that due to his depth of vision, it was Mr. Rounds who introduced me to and suggested the application for this second scholarship. As a published creative writer and theater performer today in my own country, South Africa, the experience with New York Stage and Film was both a learning curve and a great assistance to my professional aspirations. I am also aware that Mr. Rounds has helped other PIE students, notably Southern Africans with still-limited resources to exploring professional theater in their own countries, to winning this scholarship.
The “following up” work Mr. Rounds does on students long after they leave the United States is highly commendable. Again, my own situation is but one of many but it warrants mention: in November 2004, applications were offered for the first ever Mandela Rhodes Scholarships, issued by the Mandela Rhodes Foundation, founded in 2003. The aim of these scholarships was to bring together the legacies of Nelson Mandela and Cecil John Rhodes, two monumental figures in the history of both South Africa and Africa, in a spirit of conciliation to ensure recognition for African postgraduate students in various fields showing leadership skill and a deep, moral bond to the future of African growth and welfare in the world. The scholarships were necessarily exclusive to Africa only, and the first scholars elected needed to be backed by sufficient credentials and earnest testimonials. Mr. Rounds wrote a sterling letter of recommendation on my part that was a gargantuan factor in my winning one of the eight inaugural Mandela Rhodes Scholarships in 2005, a claim I still hold today. I include this information to emphasize how the investments Mr. Rounds especially has made on behalf of the PIE management are indeed long term and focused on the qualities that earned the PIE scholarship: dedication to progressive thinking on both national and international levels as well as passion for such thinking.
James Ottaway, the head of the free press movement for east Europe and a Bard trustee, was a key figure to the founding and continued development of PIE and in Carlton Rounds he had an employee who could accord with his dynamic vision of offering an outstanding educational system to non-American students that would serve to ultimately strengthen bonds between the United States and the countries her selected PIE students hailed from. The bonds many PIE students eventually developed with the influential Mr Ottaway are in no small part due to the wise choices made on the part of Carlton Rounds, who could identify the students who hold the potential to contribute to the work of Mr. Ottaway. Mr. Rounds’ relationships with these students, ranging from dedicated professionalism to platonic friendship, cannot be undermined.
I highly recommend Carlton Rounds for any position he may occupy in your organization, and deem him an asset in any respect. Leadership qualities include transparency, integrity, purpose, passion and necessary restraint to monitor passion itself. Mr. Rounds can claim all of these.
Riaan Oppelt,
Mandela Rhodes Scholar, Postgraduate Studies in English Literature
University of the Western Cape
South Africa
Lecturer, Stellenbosch University
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