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HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES Four Named Marshall Scholars
By Alvin Powell
The British government awarded four Harvard students the prestigious Marshall Scholarships last weekend, enabling the students to study at a British university for two or three years.
Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - which also had four scholars - led the 28 universities who had scholarship winners.
Harvard's winners, who plan to study topics ranging from economics to medieval literature, are seniors Daniel Benjamin, C. Thomas Brown, Miriam Goldstein, and Eric Nelson.
Marshall Scholarships are named after Gen. George Marshall, who, as U.S. secretary of state in 1947, authored the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II. The scholarships were set up by the British government in 1953 in gratitude for the postwar aid program.
The 40 scholarships cover tuition, books, and travel and living expenses.
Paul Bohlmann, associate director of Harvard's Office of Career Services and director of fellowships, said as many as 200 schools put forward about 800 candidates for the scholarships each year. With that kind of competition, the achievement of those who are selected is truly remarkable, he said.
"With students at only 28 colleges and universities getting Marshall scholarships, Harvard students did extraordinarily well," Bohlmann said. "I think it's an amazing accomplishment to get even one of these."
Though the number of scholarship winners is down from last year's eight, Bohlmann said that is likely a reflection of always-keen competition, emphasizing how rare it is for any university to win more than a few Marshall Scholarships.
"These students are all remarkable people," Bohlmann said.
The Psychology of Economics
To Dan Benjamin, the irrationality of human behavior has always seemed something of a wild card in the study of economics. Benjamin, who lives in Mather House, expects to graduate this spring with a bachelor's degree in economics and a master's degree in statistics. He plans to seek an M.Sc. at University College, London, during the first year of his scholarship and to conduct research in behavioral economics during his second year. He also hopes to take courses at the London School of Economics.
Benjamin, of Dresher, Pa., started studying economics in high school because it combined his interests in history, science, mathematics, and politics. One factor he feels is under-represented in economics, however, is the irrationality of human behavior. This insight stems - at least in part - from the fact that Benjamin's father is a psychiatrist and his mother is a family therapist.
Benjamin's ultimate goal is to pursue his work in behavioral economics as a university professor.
"I would like to contribute toward building a formal mathematical framework for modeling economic behavior that is informed by findings from psychology," Benjamin said. "This framework could then be used by economists in formulating policy prescriptions that better take into account the way people really behave."
Understanding History through Literature
Literature may not necessarily be factual, but to C. Thomas Brown, understanding medieval literature is a way to understand medieval history. Brown, of Adams House, is a history concentrator who plans to pursue an M.Phil. in medieval literature at Oxford University. He ultimately intends to pursue a Ph.D. in history and work at a university.
Brown, of Shelby, N.C., gained an interest in history during family trips around Europe, complete with visits to medieval towns and cathedrals. He began studying intellectual history at Harvard. It was a short step from reading medieval philosophical texts to reading medieval literature, he said.
Though literature and history are traditionally separate disciplines, Brown said he hopes to gain a more thorough feeling of the era by studying its literature than he could by studying its history alone.
"It will allow me to have a much broader perspective about the age," Brown said.
Golden Age of Spain
A fascination with languages, particularly Arabic, has equipped Miriam Goldstein to study Arabic and Hebrew literature written during Spain's Islamic period. Goldstein, a concentrator in Near Eastern languages and civilizations who lives in Adams House, is fluent in Arabic, Hebrew, and Spanish. She plans to use her linguistic skills to study the University of Cambridge's world-famous collection of Arabic and Hebrew manuscripts and to seek an M.Phil. in Oriental studies.
Goldstein, from Tampa, Fla., became interested in the interaction of the different cultures during a course on the mix of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in Spain. A second major influence on her course of study was a summer she spent in an Arab village in Israel. She became so fascinated with the subject, she switched her concentration from physics to Near Eastern languages and civilizations.
"I enjoy lingering on the borders between cultures and languages, especially those of Islamic Spain, with its blend of Muslim, Christian, and Jew," Goldstein said. "I hope to continue exploring the borders between cultures and people in order to create understanding, especially in the Middle East."
Classics and Intellectual History
Eric Nelson, a history concentrator from Adams House, plans to study classics and intellectual history at the University of Cambridge. Nelson, who will seek an M.Phil. in each of those subjects, spent a summer at Cambridge during high school. The scholarship will let him fulfill a long-standing desire to return.
Nelson said his interest in classics and intellectual history is "entirely the result of my years at Harvard," and has been nurtured by his relationship with professors here, particularly History Professor James Hankins and Government Professor Richard Tuck.
Nelson, from New York City, said he is considering pursuing a career in either academia or the law.
"I'm hoping my two years in England will point me in the right direction," Nelson said.
Copyright 1998 President and Fellows of Harvard College |
