March-April 2002 > John Harvard's Journal

Britain-bound

Eight Harvard seniors will cross the Atlantic to study at Oxford next year as Marshall and Rhodes Scholars. Sarah Moss has been an avid mathematician since junior high school, but plans to study philosophy at Oxford. The Marshall Scholar sees math and philosophy as kindred subjects with similar demands on logic and reason. On returning from Oxford, she hopes to take a Ph.D. in philosophy and teach at a university.

Marshall Scholars Lauren Baer, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida and Sarah Moss, Normal, Illinois.

Harvard News Office

Fellow Marshall Scholar Lauren Baer, a social-studies concentrator, has investigated women’s roles in development in rural indigenous communities in Guatemala and worked for a human-rights organization in New Delhi. She will study the intersection of law and development in gender issues, first at Oxford, where she will earn a master’s in philosophy in development studies, and then in law school.

After hearing a Bhutanese refugee lecture at Harvard, Rhodes Scholar Neil Brown became curious about that country; already interested in ethnic relations and conflict in the developing world, he did research in a Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal for his sociology thesis. He plans to earn two master’s degrees at Oxford, in forced migration and in development.

Last summer, Rhodes winner Albert Cho spent 11 weeks in Mauritius doing thesis research—the globe-trotting social-studies concentrator’s interest in development has also led him to intern with the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development in Geneva. He plans to work for an international company after completing one M.Phil. in development economics and another in environmental change and management at Oxford.

Rhodes winner Andrew Park, an economics concentrator and arts lover, wanted to write a thesis about "something a little different:" he’s studying the relationship between directors’ name recognition and the box-office performance of their films. A volunteer for Phillips Brooks House projects and president of the campus Asian American Association, Park has become interested in social policies relating to minority populations—a topic he will pursue when studying comparative social policy at Oxford.

Rhodes Scholars Albert H. Cho, Tempe, Arizona.; Stephen E. Sachs, Clayton, Montana; Robert R. Porter, Belmont, Massachusetts; Andrew Park, Wheeling, Illinois; and Neil R. Brown, Saint Charles, Iowa. Inset: Karin Alexander

Stephanie Mitchell / Harvard News Office

Robert Porter, son of IBM professor of business and government Roger Porter, is following his father’s Rhodes-winning footsteps. The government concentrator plans to earn an M.Phil. in political theory and political institutions. He has presided over the Harvard Republican Club and Harvard Students for Bush—an experience he cherished on Harvard’s predominantly liberal campus.

Stephen Sachs expects to spend his life in government and will head to law school after Oxford. The Rhodes winner stumbled upon his thesis topic while interning for the Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee: he is investigating the extent to which medieval English merchants were able to create and abide by self-made laws—a model proposed to Congress by some Internet businesses. He plans to earn a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, politics, and economics at Oxford.

Karin Alexander, a Rhodes scholar who concentrates in social studies, plans to pursue a degree in development studies at Oxford. The Zimbabwean senior hopes to return to Africa to help educate her country’s rural population in civics and politics.