Five Stanford students were named Rhodes Scholars on Saturday. Two others were selected as Mitchell Scholars.
Rhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship provides winners with the funds for up to three years of study at the University of Oxford in England. Since being established in 1902 through the will of Cecil Rhodes, a British mine operator who founded the diamond company De Beers, the scholarship has become “the oldest and best known award for international study,” according to Elliot Gerson, American secretary of the Rhodes Trust, in a press release.
The recipients from Stanford include three graduates and two seniors: Aysha Bagchi ’11, who majored in philosophy and history, with honors in Ethics in Society; Anand Habib ’11, who majored in biology, with honors in international security studies; Kate Niehaus ’10 MS ‘11, who earned her bachelor’s degree in biomechanical engineering and her master’s degree in bioengineering; Ishan Nath ’12, who is majoring in economics and Earth Systems, with a minor in mathematics; and Tenzin Seldon ’12, who is majoring in comparative studies in race and ethnicity, with a minor in feminist studies.
They plan to pursue studies as diverse as philosophy in politics to medical anthropology to economics for development while at Oxford.
“For me, the award signifies all of the hard work, support, love and conviction of the people who have been around me and seen my journey,” said Seldon, a member on the Daily Board of Trustees, to the Stanford Report. Seldon is the first Tibetan American to win a Rhodes Scholarship.
“It signifies, not just my success, but success for refuges all around the world, especially Tibetan refugees who are first generation Americans,” she added.
The Trust selects 32 American students for the award annually, and around 80 students in total worldwide. 2,000 students in the U.S. started the application process this year, according to the press release, and 830 ended up being endorsed by their universities to advance to the interview round with their districts’ selection committees.
With five students selected from Stanford, the University not only posts a personal record, but also is the school that claims the highest number of Rhodes Scholars this year. Harvard, Brown and Princeton followed closely behind, with four students being named Rhodes Scholars from each of these universities.
“It’s terrific for those five students, and Stanford should be appropriately proud,” Gerson told the San Jose Mercury News.
Mitchell Scholarship
The Mitchell Scholarship gives recipients the funds for one year of graduate study at a university in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland. 13 students receive the honor annually, and were selected from a pool of 300 applicants this year, according to a press release.
The award—which was established in 2001 and named after former Senator George Mitchell, who was chairman of Northern Ireland peace talk—has become “recognized as a highly competitive scholarship, vying with the more established Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships,” the press release said.
“The Scholarships that bear Senator Mitchell’s name are a wonderful testament to the contribution the Senator made to peace in Ireland and provide an invaluable platform to connect highly talented young American men and women to Ireland today,” Irish Ambassador Michael Collin told finalists during a reception in Washington, D.C. on Friday.
“The Mitchell scholarships are important to Ireland and ensure that Ireland and the United States remain connected in a very special and meaningful way,” he said.
The recipients from Stanford are Philippe de Koning ’10, who majored in international relations and spent this past academic year at Hiroshima University in Japan under a Fullbright Scholarship, and Tommy Tobin ’10, who double majored in international relations and history and is currently a law student at Georgetown University Law Center.
Koning plans on using his scholarship to study international security and conflict resolution at Dublin City University while Tobin intends on studying law at University College Cork.
“Stanford is delighted that two more of our students will represent the Mitchell Scholarship in Ireland next year,” said assistant vice provost and director of the Bechtel International Center John Pearson to the Stanford Report.
— Kurt Chirbas