Willow Sainsbury '04 has won an international Rhodes Scholarship, of which she was notified last Thursday. She plans to use the scholarship to Oxford University to study anthropology and museum ethnography.
The grueling selection process included preliminary interviews and a teleconference in October.
It finished with two days of interviews at the Government House in Wellington, New Zealand.
"When I first arrived I was kind of intimidated. It was a bit tense," Sainsbury said.
After the final day of questioning on Thursday, she and the other finalists waited an hour and a half for the results.
"When you've been waiting an hour and a half, you just want to know," Sainsbury said.
All the other candidates were "amazing," she said.
She added that she schooled herself, "not to think of any of the others as competition."
"Everyone was applying to the scholarship for the right reason, wanting to get the most out of their studies," she said.
Though the process was stressful, her family supported her throughout.
"My dad's last words to me before I stepped on the plane were, 'Just enjoy it'. When they heard the news, they were really emotional," Sainsbury said.
A native of Auckland, New Zealand, Sainsbury decided to go to Wellington for the interviews instead of traveling home for the holidays.
But the outcome, it seems, was well worth it.
"I'm excited about studying at Oxford," she said.
She described the field of museum ethnography as "the way you sort things, the way you collect information through anthropology."
She became interested in the subject matter after receiving the Martin Dale '53 award — given annually to a University sophomore to design an independent summer project.
Sainsbury used it to study museum artifacts at the Oxford University Museum.
Sainsbury is an art history major with a certificate in the visual arts program and president of Stella Art Club, a group in its second year on campus.
She said the goal of the club is "to make art more accessible on campus."
The club has a painting day, for which it provides canvases and paint to people to come and paint for free, and audiovisual art lectures at Theater Intime.
Stella's biggest problem, Sainsbury said, is "being consistent" with the amount of time and energy members devote to the club.
"I'm lucky I have everyone," Sainsbury says, adding, "It helps a lot that it's non-hierarchal."
Sainsbury said she would emphasize "how wonderful and underestimated visual arts is" on campus.
"People forget it can be a nice part of your degree sometimes," she said.
"Many talented artists on campus are committed to other majors and things on campus and don't get a chance to take advantage."
Sainsbury ran for the women's track team during the first semester of her freshman year, but a back injury and other factors forced her to stop.
Instead, she took up snowboarding and is now captain of the girl's team.
"If you give up one thing [at Princeton] there's 20 more things to get involved in," she said.
She added athletics have helped her develop "ways to think, ways to compete," which will serve her well at Oxford.
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