Longtime Hopkins volunteer and donor Jill McGovern, PhD, was presented with the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany during a special ceremony at the German Embassy in Washington, D.C. It is the highest tribute the country can pay to individuals for services to the nation.
McGovern was recognized for her “decades-long commitment to strengthening transatlantic and German-American relations,” German Ambassador Emily Haber wrote in a letter to McGovern in 2020. (The ceremony was delayed until March 15 of this year due to the pandemic.)
Yet the call McGovern received letting her know about the Bundesverdienstkreuz, as the decoration is known in German, may have been just as rewarding as the honor itself. The caller was none other than Sebastian Ernst — the ambassador’s chief of staff and the fourth Jill McGovern and Steven Muller Fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
“I was deeply touched,” McGovern says. “For him to call me, it was coming full circle to what Steve and I started in terms of providing support for students at SAIS — so they could go on to careers that would make a difference in the world.”
In fact, Ambassador Haber cited the McGovern-Muller Fellowship at SAIS as an example of McGovern’s dedication to German-American bonds. McGovern established the fellowship in 2008 with her husband, former Johns Hopkins University President Steven Muller, who himself was a recipient of the Order of Merit in 1980. He passed away in 2013.
In accepting her award, McGovern paid tribute to Steve: “He set the example for building bridges between the U.S. and Germany, his home country. I have tried to continue his commitment to transatlantic relations by investing in the next generation of bridge builders through our McGovern-Muller Fellowship at Johns Hopkins SAIS.”
Since 2009, 14 SAIS-Europe students have benefitted from the McGovern-Muller Fellowship, which supports a German student spending a year in Bologna and a year in Washington, D.C., in a two-year master’s program. In establishing the fellowship, the couple wanted to help exceptionally talented students attend SAIS who might not have had the financial resources to do so. But their support went well beyond that.
McGovern and Muller also introduced students to their vast network of international relations colleagues and friends in the D.C. area, connecting them with internships and other career opportunities.
Perhaps the most satisfying aspect of the McGovern-Muller Fellowship to McGovern is just being there for the students, whom she often refers to as her “children,” helping them with transportation when needed or planning a cultural outing in the city.
“It’s a nice way to stay in touch with the current generation of students, but also introduce them to what is in this case just our life, our friends,” McGovern says.
McGovern will be recognized by Johns Hopkins University with an honorary degree at the 2022 Commencement ceremony on May 22.
McGovern is also a member of the SAIS Board of Advisors and a senior consultant and member of the Board of Trustees at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, a think tank that Muller founded in 1983 in Washington affiliated with Johns Hopkins and focused on U.S.-German relations. She has been involved with the university in many other roles: as a member of the Rising to the Challenge Campaign Cabinet, the Evergreen Campaign Committee, the Peabody National Advisory Council, the SAIS Europe Advisory Council and the Hopkins-Nanjing Council, and as co-chair of the SAIS Legacy Circle.
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Topics: Alumni, Faculty and Staff, School of Advanced International Studies, Support Scholars