Marshall winners make plans for Oxford studies

"I called my parents five minutes after I got the phone call, and I wasn't very coherent. I was like, 'I . . . uuh . . . got the scholarship.' But they thought I was crying, so they tried to console me, until I finally made it clear I had won. So there was some confusion. Then I went screaming out of the building."

This was Maia Schweizer '04 after learning she had won a 2004 Marshall Scholarship, which will pay her to complete a master's degree in earth sciences at Oxford University.

Schweizer was one of two Princeton students to win the coveted scholarship this year — Daniel Pastor '03 will use the award for a master's in political theory at Oxford.

Schweizer, a geosciences major with a certificate in visual arts, hails from Pasadena, Calif. At Oxford, she plans to work with noted geologist Martin Brasier to conduct research on the earliest life on earth, with the ultimate goal of exploring the possibility of life on other planets.

"Looking for evidence of the earliest life forms on this planet is a great way to answer questions like how easily life could have happened elsewhere," she said. "I think it's important to understand life on earth before looking outward."

Outside of geology, Schweizer is an accomplished painter, dancer and athlete. For her second senior thesis in visual arts, she will paint life-size portraits of models posing asleep or while looking in the mirror.

"It's an exploration of how people look at themselves, of body language and consciousness," she said. "The models are either hyperconscious in front of the mirror, or they actually fall asleep, curl up, lose themselves."

Schweizer has also joined fencing, riflery, tae kwan do and yoga groups, runs marathons, and used to perform with a Swiss dancing group. In her spare time, she enjoys studying languages, including Chinese and German.

"I've always had a hard time choosing what to do, because it seems to me that everything interrelates," she said.

Geosciences professor Lincoln Hollister said in an email that Schweizer stands out because of her ability to understand and interpret complex phenomena.

"She will do well in whatever she chooses to do, and, whatever it is, it will not be conventional," he said. "I think she will stay in the earth sciences and that Princeton will be trying to bring her back as a professor after she finishes her graduate work."

Schweizer hopes to extend her Marshall scholarship for a third year to receive a Ph.D. in earth sciences.

Daniel Pastor '03

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For Pastor, the Marshall scholarship was not the first major award he has won. As a junior, he won the prestigious Truman scholarship, which provides $30,000 toward graduate school for individuals interested in a career in public service. And as a senior last year, he won Princeton's Martin Dale '53 Fellowship, an annual award that allows a senior to pursue an independent project the year following graduation.

Pastor, who graduated with a degree in politics and a certificate in Latin American studies, currently lives in Chile, pursuing his Dale Fellowship project.

He is studying the Chilean constitution, a document imposed on the country during the Pinochet dictatorship.

"The goal of my project is to talk to all of the key players — mostly right-wing lawyers who were involved in the drafting of the constitution — and write a political history of its writing and the 13-year struggle to reform it," he said.

As part of his project, he recently submitted an article on the country's electoral system to a local political journal.

Outside of his research, Pastor spends his time in Chile with his three housemates, all students at the Catholic University of Santiago. He enjoys camping and hiking in the Andes, as well as learning to surf "in quite cold Chilean water."

Pastor plans to leave Chile in September and will begin his studies at Oxford in October.

"I don't need a break because this doesn't seem like work to me," he said. "Self-directed research is a treat in and of itself; it's not like going to school."

At Oxford, he will work with Professor Alan Ryan on liberalism and democratic theory, and how they apply to U.S. and global politics.

"In the future, I hope to get involved in foreign policy making in the government, perhaps as a political appointee in the state department or national security council," he said.

"Latin America is a region of special interest to me, but I have to have expertise in other areas as well, so in Oxford I plan to expand my knowledge to other areas," he continued.

In his time at Princeton, Pastor was involved in the Council of the Princeton University Community, the USG Senate and was a Spanish translator in the Princeton Medical Center's Low-Income Clinic. He also co-founded Princeton in Latin America, which offers public service fellowships for Princeton graduates in the region.

"Princeton in Latin America was lots of work but will definitely continue to be a great thing for future generations of students," he said. "It was a very rewarding experience to have founded it."

Pastor has some words of advice for other students planning to apply to scholarships such as the Marshall. "Only apply if you really want to win them," he said. "It's a lot of work, and really an emotional roller coaster. You shouldn't apply just to apply."