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BY APOLLINE BERTY

In print | November 29, 2007

Since 2000, five Swarthmore College students have been awarded a Rhodes scholarship. Among the five are the two most recent winners, Rebecca Brubaker ’06 and Andrew Sniderman ’07, who are the 27th and 28th Swarthmore students to have received this award. Both will be studying at Oxford University next October.

Brubaker, the first female Swarthmore student to receive the scholarship, completed an honors major in political science at Swarthmore and will be studying “migration, resettlement and integration in Europe and along its borders.”

Brubaker explained that while growing up, she had always heard people around her speak highly of the Rhodes scholarship but that she had never heard of a woman becoming a Rhodes scholar.

“Thus since childhood, there was a certain mystique about the scholarship - making it an ultimate personal challenge to try one day to stand amongst those - but as a woman,” Brubaker said in an e-mail.

Brubaker has now achieved this personal goal. “I feel like my dream made full circle when Melissa [of the Fellowships and Prizes Office] informed me, when I called to give her the news, that according to her records, I was the first female to represent Swarthmore. That, I think, more than the scholarship itself, made me feel incredibly proud,” Brubaker said.

Sniderman, co-founder of the Genocide Intervention Network, is still deciding between a course of study in either Philosophy or Politics.

Sniderman also hopes to do some research at Oxford’s Changing Character of War Programme.

“a project I started with Professor James Kurth during a directed reading),” Sniderman said in an e-mail.

“I got to know Andrew through his work with Swarthmore Sudan [now Swarthmore Stand] on genocide intervention and from what I understand of him he’s always been other directed in his concerns,” Vice President Maurice Eldridge ’61 said as he explained that the [Rhodes] program looks for students who are both academically successful and involved in “other directed” efforts.

Both Eldridge and Fellowships and Prizes Advisor Melissa Mandos believe that Swarthmore properly prepares students for the application process.

“Our students are very good candidates for the Rhodes Scholarship for two reasons: first, Swarthmore’s rigorous academics have prepared them for work at Oxford, and second, our students live their education and are active on and off campus on issues of concern to them,” Mandos said.

The scholarship covers all educational costs for the scholars and, upon acceptance, funds additional grants for research. “It’s a very generous program providing full tuition and room and board. So a person can go to Oxford and really throw themselves into their studies without worrying about how to support themselves during graduate school,” Mandos said.

“I think they met the criteria in every level and perhaps exceeded it,” Eldridge said. “I also think that it’s encouraging for other Swarthmore students to see their compatriots succeed in this way.”

“I am incredibly lucky. I am also deeply grateful for the support provided by Swarthmore faculty and staff — this application is a real team effort,” Sniderman said. “I want to especially thank James Kurth, Ben Berger, Ken Sharpe, Hans Oberdiek, Cynthia Halpern and Maurice Eldridge for their teaching and support. I stand on the shoulders of Swarthmore’s giants.”

Brubaker strongly encourages interested students to apply for the Rhodes scholarship.

“Given the parallels between our honors system and Oxford’s tutorial system, it should seem like an even more natural fit for some of you. Please feel free to be in contact if any of you are interested. I would be happy to help in whatever way I can,” Brubaker wrote.

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