On Saturday evening, Katharine Buzicky '02 and Lillian Pierce '02 were among the 32 American students named Rhodes Scholars. They were selected from a pool of 925 applicants endorsed by 319 U.S. colleges and universities.
Buzicky said she was "very pleased and surprised" when she found out that she had received the award. "I feel like I'm walking on air," she said.
After calling her parents to tell them the good news, Pierce placed a second call to her brother, Niles Pierce '93. Niles, who studied mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton, also received a Rhodes scholarship his senior year.
"He was so happy for me," said Pierce. "He said he had been waiting by the phone since 4:00 that afternoon," she laughed. "I could hear champagne bottles popping open in the background!"
The Rhodes Scholarship, created in 1902 by the will of Cecil Rhodes, is the oldest of the international study awards available to American students. The scholarship provides funding for two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England.
In addition to American men and women, students from Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, the nations of the Commonwealth Caribbean, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe are also eligible for the award.
Applicants are chosen by the criteria of high academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness, respect for others, potential for leadership and physical vigor. Buzicky and Pierce both fit the bill.
Buzicky
Majoring in East Asian studies with a certificate in Portuguese and fluent in both Japanese and Portuguese, Buzicky has focused her studies at Princeton on the cross-cultural concerns of Japanese immigrants to Brazil who were later invited back to Japan. As a freshman, she read about Japanese immigrants in Brazil and became interested in the issue.
Buzicky traveled to Japan over fall break last month to conduct research for her senior thesis, which will center on the change in Japanese immigration laws that permitted a significant number of Japanese immigrants to return from Brazil in 1991.
Outside the classroom, Buzicky is a member of Army ROTC program at Princeton, in which she has earned the ROTC Distinguished Leadership Award.
Buzicky tentatively plans to study modern history at Oxford. However, she said the district selection committee encouraged her to investigate other options and take this opportunity to do something 'different and wild."
After her time at Oxford, Buzicky will fulfill her ROTC obligation by serving four years in the army and four years in the reserves.
Pierce
A mathematics major, Pierce has ranked first in her class each year at Princeton and has won many awards for academic excellence. She is also co-concertmaster and co-president of the Princeton University Orchestra and founder and first violinist of the Nassau String Quartet.
Prior to receiving the Rhodes Scholarship, Pierce had already been selected as a Marshall Scholar and thus was forced to decide between them because a student cannot accept both.
Pierce's decision to accept the Rhodes Scholarship over the Marshall was clear. "If I refuse the Marshall scholarship, it will be awarded to an alternate, whereas there are no alternates for the Rhodes, so no one would get the award," Pierce explained.
However, Pierce has had to change her academic plans slightly since Saturday night. She will now study exclusively at Oxford to receive a masters of science in pure mathematics, rather than studying both mathematics and computer science at both Cambridge and Oxford, as she had planned with the Marshall Scholarship.
While at Oxford, Pierce said she plans to continue to pursue her love of music by joining an orchestra and studying Baroque violin. She also hopes to explore Scottish dancing and Shakespearean theater.
Pierce's post-Oxford goals remain unchanged since Saturday's announcement. After studying in England, Pierce plans to return to the United States to work toward a Ph.D. in mathematics and eventually become a professor of mathematics.
Rhodes Scholars are selected in a three-stage process in the United States. First, candidates are endorsed by their college or university. Next, selection committees in each state nominate candidates. Finally, these state candidates are interviewed by district selection committees in eight regions of the United States. Four scholars are selected from each region.
Candidates may apply for the scholarship either in their home state or in the state where they have attended college for at least two years.
Buzicky, who applied in Minnesota, was able to attend both the state and district rounds of interviews this past weekend from within a couple of blocks from her house in St. Paul.
Pierce also applied in her home state, returning to California to complete the two final rounds of interviews.
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