Three seniors win Rhodes scholarship

Sherif Girgis, Brett Masters and Landis Stankievech are among this year's winners of Rhodes Scholarships. The fellowships will enable each to complete graduate work at Oxford next year.

Girgis and Masters are two of the 32 American winners of the fellowship, while Stankievech is a winner of the Canadian Rhodes.

Majoring in philosophy, Girgis has served as president of the Anscombe society, editor-in-chief of the Tory, co-leader of the Aquinas Institute, Orange Key Guide and as a tutor for English-as-a-second-language students in Trenton.

His goal, he said, is "not just to be confirmed in my own opinions, but to refine and revise them in an honest pursuit of the truth in matters of moral and political philosophy, and to apply these to benefit real, flesh-and-blood human beings."

He said he was pleased to find that the Rhodes committee appreciated his more conservative social views. Even his "fiercest" ideological opponents among the committee members could appreciate his goals and the honesty behind them, Girgis said.

Masters, in contrast, often falls on the opposite side of the political spectrum. A comparative literature major planning on pursuing a masters of philosophy in medieval English, he has worked with the Gay Family Rights Project, tutored with Step-Up, served as an LGBT peer educator and is currently working on a same-sex marriage panel through the LGBT Center to take place in the spring.

Though a comparative literature major, Masters researched Chinese financial markets as a summer assistant to economics professor Burton Malkiel.

"Brett's just an absolutely extraordinary person," said Malkiel, who wrote one of Masters' official letters of recommendation. "He is enormously smart, enormously capable and enormously proficient in everything he does. I don't think I've met anyone at Princeton who had quite the breadth that he does. I'm sure that's one of the things that appealed to the Rhodes Committee."

There has been some confusion, however, regarding Masters' biography released by the Rhodes Committee. The short press release, written by the district secretary's office, misrepresented the extent of his involvement in several campus organizations and listed him as the winner of the Dante Prize, which was actually awarded to Girgis.

Masters has already taken steps to rectify this "ambiguity," he said. Elliot Gerson, the American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, stated that the winners' biographies are often written late at night based on information supplied by the students. In the case of Masters, a misinterpretation of the limited data on his resume led to the errors.

Stankievech, a mechanical and aerospace engineering major from Canada, is a forward on the men's varsity hockey team. He also won the fall 2004 and spring 2005 prizes for Outstanding Academic Achievement in the BSE program, in addition to the 2005 Pyka Physics Prize.

His athletic experience, Stankievech said, made him a "different style of applicant." In many Canadian universities, he explained, "It's very hard to balance athletics and engineering." At Princeton, though, the administration does a "phenomenal job" of allowing students to balance both endeavors. "It's a great environment to pursue your passions," he said.

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Stankievech plans to continue to play hockey at Oxford, whose Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) program — Rhodes faculty adviser Joshua Katz said — is a unique interdisciplinary combination in the academic world. The program, Katz added, is an excellent fit for Stankievech.

Though Masters and Girgis have substantial ideological differences, Masters said he considers himself a close friend of Girgis'.

The choice of scholars from such pointedly different philosophical backgrounds speaks very highly of the Rhodes Committee, politics professor Robert George said. By doing so, the committee embodies academia's goal of recognizing students "not on a partisan or ideological basis, but on the basis of their intellect and personal characters," he added.

The friendship between Girgis and Masters is also a testament to the characters of the students, Katz said. "It speaks very well that the two of them get along so well despite having such fundamental differences," he said.

George, who also served as Girgis' endorser, praised the senior for his unique combination of intellect and boldness. "When [Girgis] examines an argument or a point of view," George said, "he is careful to assess each step in the argument to see whether the inference ... is sound. When he constructs an argument of his own, you can see that he has already thought through the possible lines of counterargument."

Yet, George added, Girgis is also unique for "his remarkable and refreshing boldness, a willingness to question prevailing orthodoxies and points of view on campus." Girgis confronts issues "not only ... in the privacy of his own mind, but also publicly."

For winners of the Rhodes, Oxford offers an opportunity to study under a consortium of renowned scholars.

"There's no better place in the world, I think, to study medieval English and medieval literature than Oxford," Masters said. There, he added, one can participate in the tradition of scholars like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, individuals who tried to apply their ideas in creative writing and social commentary.

"It's a cool place to be," he said, "to walk around with those ghosts for a while."