Robinson '04 named Rhodes Scholar

David Robinson '04 is one of 32 recipients of this year's Rhodes Scholarship — and the only winner from the University.

And when his mother started screaming into her cell phone Saturday evening, people in the Washington, D.C., hotel lobby knew something had happened.

A few moments later, the doormen were lined up to shake Robinson's hand as he arrived from the Washington bureau of The New York Times, where he had just learned he had been chosen from 963 applicants endorsed by 366 schools.

The announcement was the culmination of a week-long, two-round selection process that whittled the pool from 450 to 100 to the 32 winners.

"I feel so fortunate," said Robinson, speaking to The Daily Princetonian on the train ride back to the University yesterday afternoon. "It's so exciting and such an honor and so overwhelming."

An aspiring journalist, Robinson is a 'Prince' opinions page editor and held an internship at Time Magazine in the summers of 2002 and 2003. He will begin at Oxford University next October to pursue a degree in moral philosophy.

For Robinson, the process of applying for the Rhodes began in April, when he attended an information session with last year's winner from Princeton, Laura Shackelton '03.

She was very impressive but down-to-earth, he recalled, and put a human face on the process.

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Robinson began compiling the requisite recommendations, and yesterday he credited much of his success to the support he received from the faculty — in particular, English professor John Fleming GS '63, himself a former Rhodes Scholar.

After being selected at the state level, Robinson, a native of Potomac, Md., was invited to Washington to continue in the process. Meeting the other candidates, he said he was so impressed that he sometimes found himself wondering, "Do I belong here?"

That was up to the selection committees to decide, through a nerve-wracking process of cocktail parties and individual interviews.

"I came out of the state interview convinced it had been a train wreck," Robinson said. "It seemed that [the committee was] unsatisfied and pushing hard."

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He would find out later that they decided to grill him because he was doing so well.

Robinson advanced to the regional level with 11 other students from Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas and Kentucky.

There, Robinson's journalistic aspirations sat well with the head of the regional selection committee, R. W. Apple, Jr. '57, the legendary journalist and a former 'Prince' editor.

Journalism, Robinson explained, embodies the mission of Cecil Rhodes in establishing the scholarship in his will to "fight the world's fight."

Eventually, he hopes to write for a magazine like The New Yorker, Harper's, The Atlantic Monthly or Time. But prior to that, he expects to gain some experience as a reporter.

The best writers, he said, "wore through some shoe leather first as regular reporters and got a sense of how the world is organized."

When asked on the Rhodes application to explain in four words why he wanted to win the scholarship, he wrote, "Philosophy drives the news."

On any major issue ranging from intervention in Iraq to partial birth abortions, Robinson explained, one can find activists who agree on the facts but disagree on philosophical grounds.

Robinson envisions becoming the kind of journalist who "tells you what the facts are and then gets to the philosophical differences that explain the situation."

"The media can be an echo chamber," he said. "I want to add something new to the discussion."