Three students win Fulbright, Rotary, Truman Scholarships

Three University students recently learned that their academic achievements are being rewarded with scholarships for graduate study.

Robert Accordino '03 said he was doubly surprised when he learned he had received both a Fulbright Scholarship to Australia and the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship.

Accordino, a psychology major receiving certificates in theater and musical performance, said he plans to use the scholarship to continue his study of autism at Oxford University in England and at Queensland College in Australia.

Incorporating his interests in music and psychology, Accordino's thesis project involved a "receptive music therapy" project, which he worked on at the Eden School for Autism.

Accordino said he hopes research shines light on a disease about which little is known.

"In doing the research, you can advocate for those with autism," he said. "It's public service as you're doing scientific research."

Upon his return, Accordino will enroll in medical school at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City, where he was accepted early as a sophomore through the Mt. Sinai Humanities and Medicine Program.

On April 1, the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation announced as recipients juniors Charlotte Lanvers and Carlos Ramos-Mrosovksy.

The Truman scholarship recognizes academic excellence, leadership potential and demonstrated devotion to public service. This year, the foundation selected 76 students from 63 U.S. colleges and universities.

Princeton students interested in the scholarship began applying in October. The multi-step process is "fairly stressful," Ramos-Mrosovsky said, as it involves applications, recommendation letters and interviews.

Ramos-Mrosovsky, a Wilson school major, is the founding editor of American Foreign Policy. He also founded the Princeton Committee Against Terrorism.

Lanvers, also a student in the Wilson school, has been involved with the Undergraduate Committee for Disability Issues and is the co-president and co-founder of the Association for Disability Awareness and Advocacy on campus.

Ramos-Mrosovsky said his selection took him completely by surprise.

"All of the other candidates I met were extremely bright, motivated, and successful students, and so I had no reason to expect that I'd be chosen," he said.

Lanvers said she was similarly caught off guard.

"There were definitely tears and there was a lot of jumping around," she said.

Lanvers plans to get a Juris Doctor in children's advocacy, and said she hopes to eventually work as a children's advocate for an education policy organization or public-interest law firm. An education policy class she took last fall first exposed her to "the inequality that is pervasive in American public schools," she said. Her spring task force is dealing with urban school reform particularly with concern to marginalized children.

Both win $3,000 for their senior year studies as well as $27,000 for graduate school — $13,500 for the first and last years. The scholarship also provides priority admission and supplemental financial aid to some prestigious graduate institutions.