Chantelle Roberson
Stephen Culp

For the past five years, Chattanooga has chosen one or two emerging leaders to represent the Scenic City abroad, but Marshall Memorial Fellowship organizers wanted to do more.

So this year, along with announcing the two fellows, the fellowship also is celebrating trans-Atlantic relations.

“So much has happened in Chattanooga in the last few years in relation to Europe-American relations,” said Eleanor Cooper, local coordinator of the Marshall Memorial Fellowship. “Just in the last year, there’s been $3 billion invested in the community from European companies.

“This has raised the awareness of the need for understanding European relations,” she said, something addressed in part by the Marshall Memorial Fellowship.

The announcement of the 2010 Marshall Memorial Fellows — A. Chantelle Roberson and Stephen Culp — was made Tuesday night during a reception attended by members of the community, elected officials and representatives of several international companies.

The fellows program was developed in 1982 and includes members from 22 European countries and the United States. Chattanooga, which also hosts European members of the Marshall program, is one of about 30 cities in the United States to be tapped for the fellowship.

Ms. Roberson, a local attorney, said she was shocked when she learned she was nominated for the 24-day program in which Marshall fellows visit several European countries and learn about a wide range of domestic and international policy.

She said community involvement is one of her passions and she wants to focus on how European countries accomplish that goal during her fellowship.

“I really want to know how they continue to engage their communities, to make their citizens feel a part of the future of neighborhoods, communities, countries,” she said. “It all starts with the neighborhoods.”

Mr. Culp, founder and chairman of Smart Furniture Inc., said he was “thrilled from the beginning. I thought that Chattanooga is a lucky place to have this opportunity, to be connected with this program.

“So much can happen when you put two people from different backgrounds together, in such a short time you dispel false notions, you learn about each other and generally come out as a better person,” he said.