32 U.S. students named Rhodes Scholars for 2004
Monday, November 24, 2003

BOSTON -- The newest class of Rhodes Scholars includes a female former wing commander who led 4,000 cadets at the U.S.
Air Force Academy, a political science major who has worked with refugees in the Balkans and Afghanistan, and a
national Frisbee champion who was a contributing scientist on a NASA Mars mission.

As winners were announced late Saturday, many of the finalists waited impatiently at ceremonies in various locations
around the country.

"It was really nerve-racking," said Rachael A. Wagner, 21, a winning Harvard University senior from Virginia Beach,
Va., who was with a group in Washington. "I turned to the woman next to me and said, 'did he say my name?' I was really
shocked and excited."

Wagner's Harvard led the class of 2004 -- the 100th year of American Rhodes Scholars -- with four of the 32 American
scholars. The U.S. Military Academy, Stanford University, Boston College, Williams College and Washington University
can each boast of two.

Donald Hafner, a Boston College political science professor and director of the University Fellowship committee, said
he was pleased that BC has its first two Rhodes Scholars.

"It was a long and anxious wait, but I am enormously pleased at the success of the students," he said.

The winners were selected from 963 applicants endorsed by 366 colleges and universities to attend Oxford University in
England starting next October. Their scholarships provide two or three years of study.

Wagner, majoring in economics and social anthropology, has worked with an organization that helps women in Boston's
neighborhoods get an economic start, helped draw up a 25-year strategic plan for her home state of Virginia, and
aspires to help other nations.

"In the long run, economic development is really going to be what drives us toward a more stable global society," she
said Sunday. "I think it would be really interesting to run for office someday, but that depends on how I'm thinking."

Other scholars who will be joining her at Oxford include a published author, an actress-playwright and students
majoring in everything from history to medicine.

Richard A. Malins, 21, who plays violin in the Boston University orchestra and has acted or helped out in 25 plays in
college, steeled himself for the nerve-wracking interview process by preparing for the worst.

"I had convinced myself that there was no way I was going to win a scholarship, so I went into the interviews very
relaxed," said the Pearl City, Hawaii resident.

The chemistry and neuroscience major wants to spend his time at Oxford on a research project studying Alzheimer's and
Parkinson's diseases and other degenerative disorders of the brain that come with age.

Alexander Pollen, 21, a Lexington, Mass., native, got word of the scholarship in Boston Saturday afternoon while most
of his friends were at the Harvard-Yale football game in Connecticut. He went out with another scholarship contender,
and when he got off the subway, there were eight congratulatory messages for him on his cell phone.

"It doesn't feel real. It's a great opportunity for me. I hope to make the most of it," he said.

Pollen said he's enjoyed biology since high school, where he won science awards and studied tortoises in the Galapagos
Islands. Today, the Harvard University senior is researching neurobiology, and how habitat affects different species'
brain development and gene structure.

He thrives when he's doing field research, he said. Last summer, he traveled with his adviser 41 hours across Africa on
a World War I-era train to Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania. There, he observe some 200 species of cichlid fish, which are
widely studied for their genetic diversity.

There are risks, such as when he was stung by an electric catfish while scuba diving, but he loves the field research
that takes him out of the lab, he said.

"I love it. Not all project lend themselves to field work," he said. "It was an unbelievable experience for all the
things I'm interested in."

Daniel I. Helmer of Colts Neck, N.J., is a graduate of the United States Military Academy and expects to be shipped to
Iraq within 30 days. Amber M. Raub of Columbiana, Ohio, is a senior at West Point and hopes to work as an engineer for
the U.S. space program. Delavane Diaz, of Tampa, Fla., is an engineering major at the U.S. Air Force Academy and only
the second woman to hold the top wing commander position there.

Jennifer M. Harris, a Wake Forest University senior from Lawton, Okla., has worked with refugees in the Balkans, Mexico
and Afghanistan and plans to study international relations at Oxford. Bethany L. Ehlmann of Edwardsville, Ill., a
senior at Washington University, played on the school's Ultimate Frisbee team that made it to the national
championships. She also plans to be at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in January with a team of scientists
participating in a Mars rover mission.

Rhodes Scholarships were created in 1902 by the will of British philanthropist Cecil Rhodes. Winners are selected on
the basis of high academic achievement, personal integrity, leadership potential and physical vigor, among other
attributes.

SOURCE: Framingham Metro West Daily News, MA
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/local_regional/ap_rhodes11242003.htm

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