Sachs Scholarship awarded to Barnard '09

“I’m just blown away. I feel incredibly lucky and fortunate,” Barnard said. “I’m really honored that the committee was sort of willing to look past my weirdness and the fact that I may be not what conventionally they are looking for, but to realize that I am really committed to what I’m doing and that I want to do what’s best for the world.”

Barnard plans to use the scholarship, established to provide a senior with the opportunity to study, work or travel abroad after graduation, to pursue a master’s degree at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Worcester College at Oxford University.

“I’m excited about having the chance to go to Oxford, which is the classical home of anthropology, and just basically having an opportunity to learn about the world and have a broader perspective.” Barnard explained, “For me, being interested in social justice, I’m excited about having a chance to look at non-Western cultures and see what we can glean from them in order to figure how to create a just and ethical society. That’s what I think Oxford offers.”

Barnard’s strong interest in social justice led him to focus his academic research on the Freegan movement, which was the topic of his junior paper. Freegans aim to reject capitalism by limiting their consumption of resources, instead opting for discarded food and goods.

For his research, Barnard commuted to New York City on weekends, attending public Freegan events and meeting important players in the Freegan group, sociology professor Delia Baldassarri, one of Barnard’s JP advisers, said in a statement e-mailed to The Daily Princetonian.

“Ethnographic work requires real commitment,” Baldassarri said. “Nonetheless, despite his deep involvement with the Freegan’s activities, he never took the Freegan’s creed at its face value, showing a great capacity of maintaining the necessary distance from his research subject. This speaks volumes about [Barnard’s] intellectual integrity and analytical power.”

Barnard explained that he first developed his interest in sociology in a freshman seminar taught by sociology professor Patricia Fernandez-Kelly.

“She really broadened my worldview from my first day on campus,” he said, “I’m really grateful to her and Delia Baldassarri.”

Barnard was the president of the Princeton University Band, which he explained has kept him “sane and happy for four years.” He has also served as vice president of the Princeton Animal Welfare Society, an organization he co-founded. He is a member of the Princeton Coalition Against Capital Punishment and the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.

The Sachs Scholarship was created in 1970 in memory of Daniel Sachs, who died of cancer at age 28. Sachs attended Worcester College as a Rhodes Scholar. The scholarship is given to individuals who best exemplify “Sachs’ character, intelligence, and commitment, and whose scholarship is most likely to benefit the public,” according to a University statement.

— Staff writer Raymond Brusca contributed reporting