William "Blake" Busbin, who graduated from Auburn University in May 2006, has been awarded the James Madison Fellowship by the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation of Washington, D.C.  This fellowship is awarded each year to college graduates who aspire to teach American history, American government and social studies in the nation's secondary schools.

Busbin, who earned a bachelor's in secondary social science educations, was active in several campus organizations, including Phi Kappa Phi, a national scholastic honor society open to the top 5 percent of graduating seniors from each college.  He served as administrative vice president and alumni relations vice president of FarmHouse Fraternity.  The Georgia native was also a member of the College of education Student Ambassadors, and organization designed to develop student's leadership, public speaking and interpersonal skills while they assist the college through hosting various college programs and events.

Currently he is a graduate student at Auburn University studying secondary social science education with a concentration in constitutional history.  AS part of the fellowship, Busbin will spend the last semester of his graduate studies at Georgetown University in summer 2007.  To satisfy the fellowship requirements, he will teach political science or American history beginning in fall 2007.

Named in honor of the fourth president of the United States and acknowledged "Father of the Constitution and Bill of Rights," a James Madison Fellowship fund up to $24,000 of each fellow's course of study towards a master's degree.  That program must include a concentration of courses on the history and principles of the U.S. Constitution.