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| On the Rhode to Success |
December 06, 2000 |
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| You just have to believe in yourself
“I see a lot of qualified people who don’t apply,” says Rhodes Scholarship applicant Jennifer Halbleib, a UNM senior who graduated from St. Pius. “They think this is bigger than them. They see people like Bill Clinton and Heather Wilson, and think that a Rhodes Scholarship is unreachable. I think they’re wrong. You just have to believe in yourself.”
Jennifer interviewed this year for an opportunity to represent New Mexico in the District interviews for a Rhodes Scholarship. Other applicants this year included Ian Bezpalko (Socorro), UNM; Eleanore Conant (Albuquerque), University of Redlands; Anna Nogar (Los Alamos), UNM; and Jason Thomas (Roswell), Texas Christian University. The New Mexico nominee will compete against students from Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
“Out of the thousands of people who apply from throughout the country, only 32 students are selected,” says Congresswoman Heather Wilson. “This process is very competitive. But the selection process itself is a growth opportunity for students who apply for a Rhodes Scholarship.”
On Wednesday, December 6, five nervous college students waited patiently for their interview just outside Wilson’s congressional office in Albuquerque. There, a panel of 6 community leaders, including Congresswoman Heather Wilson, interviewed each applicant. Wilson herself was selected as a Rhodes Scholar in 1982 and serves as Secretary of the New Mexico Rhodes Scholarship Committee.
Rhodes Scholars are appointed for at least two years of study in the University of Oxford. in England. All education costs are paid on the Scholar’s behalf by the Rhodes Trustees. Each year the New Mexico Selection Committee seeks a student with the qualities that offer the promise of effective service to the world in the decades ahead. Thirty-two U.S. citizens are among more than 90 Rhodes Scholars worldwide who take up degree courses at Oxford University.
A Vision
The Rhodes Scholarships were established in 1903 by Cecil Rhodes, who dreamed of improving the world through the diffusion of leaders motivated to serve their contemporaries, trained in the contemplative life of the mind, and broadened by their acquaintance with one another and by their exposure to cultures different from their own. Mr. Rhodes hoped that his plan of bringing able students from throughout the English-speaking world and beyond to study at Oxford University would aid in the promotion of international understanding and peace.
Regardless of the outcome of today’s interviews, Jennifer looks towards the future, and urges New Mexico students to apply for a Rhodes Scholarship. “You can make any situation a good situation,” she says. “It’s about what you do, not your last name, or what neighborhood you live in, or where you go to school. It’s about who you are inside and whether or not you believe in yourself.”
“I strongly encourage New Mexico students to apply for a Rhodes Scholarship,” says Wilson. “The scholarship is competitive, but it is not exclusive. It is earned by students from small state colleges and elite Ivy League schools, rich and poor, scientists and arts majors.” |
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