Rhodes and Marshall scholarships reception
• 5:30 p.m. Monday in the Henderson Room in the Michigan League
Each year thousands of accomplished students vie for the Rhodes and Marshall scholarships, but only 32 will attend Oxford as Rhodes Scholars and 40 will have the option to study at a wide variety of institutions in the United Kingdom as Marshall Scholars. This year, six Wolverines have been nominated by the Provost’s Council on Student Honors to compete at the national level for these prestigious scholarships.
Provost Phil Hanlon is hosting a reception to honor the Michigan nominees at 5:30 p.m. today in the Henderson Room in the Michigan League. Students who want to know more about applying for a Rhodes or a Marshall scholarship are invited to the reception. They will hear this year’s nominees speak about the application process and what they learned from it.
As Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Lester Monts, sponsor of the council, points out, “Being a Rhodes or Marshall nominee is a tremendous achievement. Applicants must have a near perfect academic record as well as substantial success outside of the classroom. The Rhodes and Marshall organizations are looking for leaders of the future, and we use the same criteria when selecting our nominees.”
This year’s U-M nominees are:
• Alex Carney of Midland, who will graduate in May 2012 with an honor’s degree in mathematics, is nominated for both the Rhodes and Marshall scholarships. A mathematician with several publications, Carney also is an accomplished musician who performs as a violinist with the Michigan Campus Symphony, serves as a small ensembles director with the Michigan Pops Orchestra, and leads the Michigan Pops String Orchestra as director and concertmaster. He is a competitive runner who placed seventh in the 2010 Detroit Marathon. If selected for a Rhodes or Marshall scholarship, he will study the history of science and mathematics.
• Sean Collins of Bethesda, Md., is nominated for both the Rhodes and Marshall scholarships. He will graduate in May 2012 with a Bachelor of Music in piano performance and Bachelor of Science in chemistry. His research interest is in nanostructured materials for use in renewable energy, a subject he will pursue in England if he is awarded one of these scholarships. He already has contributed to four publications, with two more in progress, all while achieving considerable success in one of the most competitive piano departments in the country. He also was the director of the Midwest Bisexual, Lesbian, Gay, Transgender Ally College Conference in 2011, a three-year, student-run effort. He hopes to study materials science in England.
• Hajin Jun of Manhasset Hills, N.Y., who currently is conducting research in Korea on a Fulbright grant, is nominated for a Marshall Scholarship. She graduated from LSA in May with high distinction, having earned Highest Honors in History while also completing a political science major. Her honors thesis explored the complex role Christian missionaries played in Korea’s first organized protest against Japanese rule. If selected for a Marshall, she will pursue her interests in religion and history while honing her methodological skills.
• Jim Manganello of Chicago, who is nominated for the Marshall Scholarship, graduated in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in history and English literature. A director for Basement Arts and Rude Mechanicals in the Duderstadt Video Studio while a student at U-M, he has worked in theatre in Chicago. He currently is the dramaturg and literary manager at Remy Bumppo Theatre Company in Chicago and continues to develop his own theatre pieces. If he is awarded a Marshall Scholarship, he will study directing at the University of London.
• Anna Mickols of Bartlesville, Okla., a Marshall nominee, is interested in pursuing museum studies and archeology in England. Her particular interest, the relationship between museums and living communities whose ethnographic artifacts are on display, was piqued by her work at the U-M Museum of Anthropology. This fall she is teaching a mini-course in honors on how political and social ideals affect museum representation of gender, ethnics and religious groups. She aspires to be among the archeologists and museologists who understand and respect the complexities of cultural patrimony and repatriation.
• Spencer Smith of Holland, Mich., is nominated for both the Rhodes and Marshall scholarships. If he is selected for one of these scholarships he will add a degree in comparative social policy from Oxford to his U-M degree in economics (highest honors) and math. As an undergraduate, he served two years as a resident adviser in LSA’s Honor Program and taught a mini-course on economic theory called Risky Business: The Economics of Sex. In the summer of 2009 he worked in the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program. He now works for William Gale at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.
