MUNCIE, Ind. -- A new scholarship will assist Ball State University education students who take part in the Urban Semester Program, a collaboration between Teachers College, the College of Sciences and Humanities and the Indianapolis Public Schools.

The Robert L. Hughes Scholarship for the Urban Experience offers financial assistance to students who exhibit interest in community activities, show qualities of leadership and demonstrate financial need.

The Urban Semester Program places future teachers in the classrooms of elementary, middle and high schools in the Indianapolis Public School System. Participants divide their day between on-site courses with university professors and duties in their assigned classrooms.

"Preservice teachers often have misconceptions about what it's like to teach in an urban area," said Patricia Hughes, director of the Office of Educational Field Experiences and the widow of Robert Hughes. "Our students are gaining valuable experience teaching and dealing with the unique problems of an urban school while becoming immersed in the culture of a school system."

Patricia Hughes, his sons Richard D. and William V. Hughes and their families and family friends Robert and Claudia Broyles established the scholarship with gifts to the university. Memorial gifts made to the university at the time of Hughes' death will also be used for the scholarship.

Hughes said her husband was someone who promoted the value of higher education.

"He challenged young people to make the most of their learning opportunities," she said. "More than once he gave personal assistance to students in need, and he shared in the successes of all those who accepted his challenge."

Robert "Bob" Hughes was born in Muncie and raised in Knightstown. He returned to Muncie after graduating from Morton Memorial High School to attend Ball State. He received his degree in 1941.

Following service with the U.S. Army, Hughes joined R. J. Whitinger & Company as a Certified Public Accountant, an association lasting more than 50 years. He was a director of Mutual Federal Savings Bank and retired as its chairman in 1993.

Hughes was an active civic leader, receiving the Muncie Jaycees Distinguished Service Award and leading the Delaware County United Way campaign. He served as a trustee of the Muncie Masonic Temple Association and chairman of the board of Westminster Village. He died in 1999.

(Note to Editors: For more information about this story contact Hudson Akin at (765)285-8261 or hakin@bsu.edu.)