Road Scholars

Photo by Will Owens

Peter Robinson has broadened students' horizons as the third director of the Royster Society of Fellows.

For the past decade, the Royster Society of Fellows has brought some of the finest graduate students in the country to the University of North Carolina. And for the past three years, climatologist and Society director Peter J. Robinson has been bringing North Carolina to the students.

As the program’s third director, Robinson works closely with the Graduate School to foster the goals of the Society: good scholarship, good ambassadorship, and good interdisciplinary interaction. But Robinson believes his job also includes broadening students’ horizons beyond just the university setting.

“One of the things that concerns me is that it is possible for students to do all their work in Chapel Hill, or at the very most in the Triangle, and they never have the chance to get to know anything about North Carolina,” he says. “I always want to encourage our fellows to look and think outside of those boundaries.”

Robinson’s familiarity with North Carolina stems from his background in geography. Since joining the UNC faculty in that department in 1971, he has been conducting field work that has taken him to every corner of the state. In 1976, he was named North Carolina’s first state climatologist.

Much of what he has seen through his work and travel prompted him to tailor the Society to become familiar with the people and places he’s visited over the years.

“Society directors like to think about our graduate students as being intellectually a cut above,” he says. “Consequently, if they can see more, then they’ll think about more. And thinking about a problem is where we must begin. If you don’t think about it, you’re never going to do anything about it. Worry about it, act on it. That’s the whole idea."

Photo courtesy of Royster Fellows

Robinson's field trips have taken students across North Carolina in explorations of the state's culture and landscape.

For Robinson, that has meant taking groups of students on trips to explore the culture and landscape of North Carolina. One group visited Charlotte, with stops in Siler City, the Uwharrie Mountains, NASCAR headquarters, the Bank of America headquarters and Lake Norman along the way.

“We took a back route to see some of the smaller towns that were important to North Carolina’s development and that sprung up as a response to the demand for immigrant labor,” says Joe LoBuglio, a fellow in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering. “Peter was encyclopedic in his knowledge of all the areas we visited and shared his knowledge as we were traveling.”

Another expedition was to Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park and Eco Center, the largest waterfowl center in North America, where the fellows met with Scotland Neck mayor Robert Partin.

“It was a great experience for them and for us,” Partin says. “We truly appreciated Dr. Robinson and the students taking the time and effort on a busy Sunday to visit Scotland Neck and learn about what makes our community so special.”

The field trips proved to be a big hit with the fellows as well.

Photo courtesy of Royster Fellows

Robinson's knowlege and appreciation of North Carolina has rubbed off on the Royster Fellows.

“It was really fun to spend more concentrated and relaxed time with other fellows and Peter and his wife,” says Jill McClain, who is focusing on nutrition in the School of Public Health. “He’s knowledgeable about North Carolina and has been very creative in coming up with projects for the fellows that are fun and interesting, as well as educational.”

And that, Robinson says, is the idea.

“We directors are fortunate to be able to bring our own kind of biases, enthusiasms and skills to the job,” he says. “It's even more rewarding when we have a chance to do that with some of the brightest scholars the world has to offer.”

- Joshua D. Meyer

© 2007, The Graduate School, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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