Four seniors and two recent graduates have been honored with Rhodes, Marshall and Mitchell scholarships.
Two seniors and an alumnus were among 32 Americans granted the Rhodes scholarship, which funds two to three years of graduate study at Oxford University.
Two seniors were awarded the Marshall scholarship, which funds graduate study for 40 students at a British university of the scholar’s choice.
One alumnus won the Mitchell scholarship, which funds one year of graduate study for 12 students at a university in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland.
Rhodes Scholars
Biology major Fatima Sabar ’11, one of the Rhodes scholars, plans to pursue a master of science degree in global health. Sabar’s work at Stanford includes coordinating a diabetes health education project with migrant farm workers in Monterey County and medicine-related volunteering in Rwanda and Oaxaca, Mexico.
Engineering physics and international relations major Varun Sivaram ’11, another Rhodes Scholar, plans to pursue a Ph.D. in solar energy materials, with an ultimate goal of becoming an international climate negotiator. Sivaram currently has two patents pending related to solar energy design.
Stanford’s third Rhodes scholar, alum Fagan Harris ’09 who studied political science and American studies while at Stanford, served as vice president of the ASSU and president of Stanford Students for Relief, where he focused on Pakistani flood relief and victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Harris is currently completing a master’s degree in human rights justice as a Mitchell Scholar at the University of Limerick in Ireland. At Oxford, Harris plans to pursue a Ph.D. in education.
Marshall Scholars
Earth systems, English and French literature major Sasha Engelmann ’11, a Marshall Scholar, plans to study geography and environment at Oxford. At Stanford, Engelmann served as president of the Climate Initiatives Group, part of Students for a Sustainable Stanford and “sustainability adviser” to the sophomore class government of 2008-2009.
Math and physics major Temple He ’11 plans to spend two years at Cambridge University, studying mathematics in his first year and pursuing a master of philosophy in condensed matter theory research in his second. He has interned at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and is the natural sciences editor for the Stanford Journal of Undergraduate Research.
Mitchell Scholar
Former ASSU president David Gobaud ‘10 plans to pursue a master of law degree at Queen’s University Belfast. Gobaud said he is interested in reforming the criminal justice system and chose this university because of North Ireland’s Youth Conferencing services, which he credits with reducing local crime rates.