Four Seniors Named Rhodes Scholars

Four Harvard College seniors are among the 32 newly minted Rhodes Scholars:

• Samuel Galler, of Boulder, Colorado, and Quincy House, who is concentrating in East Asian studies and global health and health policy (and simultaneously earning his A.M. in East Asian studies)
• Spencer Lenfield, of Paw Paw, Michigan, and Eliot House, a history and literature concentrator
• Brett Rosenberg, of Chappaqua, New York, and Cabot House, a history concentrator
• Victor Yang, of Lexington, Kentucky, and Winthrop House, a history of science concentrator

Lenfield, who was a Harvard Magazine Berta Greenwald Ledecky Undergraduate Fellow during the 2009-2010 academic year, wrote Undergraduate columns on reading great books during the unstructured January break in the school year, nascent online social networks, and the passage of time and the maturing of interests during the course of his undergraduate studies. His online contributions to harvardmagazine.com include a nuanced report on Harvard's tenth-anniversary commemoration of 9/11; "Mackintoshed Parade," a report from the wet 375th anniversary celebration this past October; and an insightful criticism of a contemporary-classical-music concert last spring. A complete list of his Harvard Magazine dispatches appears here. 

Brett Rosenberg's funny and self-deprecating commentaries on her undergraduate life have included "Black and White—and the Red, White and Blue," a reflection on her majority-minority status as a member of Kuumba Singers (and their performance at Fenway Park); a bemused reflection on unexpectedly spending the summer at home (conducting research in "Sleepy Hollow! What an exotic-sounding place. The home of Washington Irving and his fictional friend, Ichabod Crane. The home of a beautiful state park with miles upon miles of trails for running and horseback riding, just 15 minutes from the house I’ve lived in since I was two. And the home of my dentist."); and a separate summer experience, in Cambridge, where she learned how to "cook" for herself ("The combination of Red Bull and Toy Story 3 gummies might make for a powerful stomachache, but at what other point in life am I going to get the chance to cook so innovatively?")

The Rhodes Trust supplied these biographies of the four winners:

• Samuel M. Galler, Boulder, is a Harvard senior who will get a bachelor’s in East Asian studies and global health and health policy and a master’s in East Asian regional studies. His thesis is on the politics of Chinese NGOs and HIV/AIDS. Sam was a research intern at Tsinghua University, founded a web-design firm, and as a former competitor in the World Youth Chess Olympics, co-founded a chess academy for middle and elementary school children. He is also president of an a cappella group and a vocal jazz ensemble. Sam plans to do the M.Sc. in modern Chinese studies and the M.Sc. in global health science at Oxford.
• Spencer B.L. Lenfield, Paw Paw, is a senior at Harvard concentrating in history and literature. Winning top distinction as a scholar of the humanities since his freshman year, Spencer has won prizes for his work on Flaubert and Virginia Woolf, and has been editor-in-chief of a student literary magazine, arts columnist for the Harvard Crimson and contributing writer for Harvard Magazine. He is also an accomplished pianist and poet. Spencer was born in Korea and adopted as an infant by his parents in Kalamazoo. He intends to do an M.Litt. in history at Oxford.
• Brett A. Rosenberg, Chappaqua, is a senior at Harvard concentrating in history. An editorial columnist for the Harvard Crimson, she has also written for the New York Times and Harvard Magazine, and was a fiction and poetry editor of Tuesday Magazine. She is also head research assistant to Professor Niall Ferguson. Brett has also been a peer advisor and a member of the Kuumba Singers, a choir dedicated to black creativity and spiritualism. At Oxford, she plans to do the M.Phil. in international relations.
• Victor Yang, Lexington, is a senior at Harvard concentrating in history and science. A U.S. presidential scholar, and elected as a junior to Phi Beta Kappa, his academic focus has been on medicine and society. Victor also studied at Oxford, where he won the Oxford Law Society essay competition. He is doing research to drive reform in Medicaid reimbursement policy, was a public policy intern with the National League of Cities, conducted a project on HIV/AIDS antiretroviral services in South Africa and taught English in Bulgaria. He also was a staff writer for the Harvard Crimson. Victor will do the master of public policy at Oxford.

Read the Crimson story about the winners here. The University profiles appear here.