5 area students are Rhodes scholars

Five area college students are among 32 men and women from American universities who have won the prestigious 2010 Rhodes Scholarships, officials announced Sunday.

Aakash Shah, a graduate of Ursinus College; Matthew Watters, a senior at the University of Delaware; and Andrew Lanham, a graduate of Haverford College, will all study at the University of Oxford in England. Joining them will be Mark Jia, a graduate of Princeton University, and Nicholas DiBerardino, a senior at Princeton.

Shah, a native of Cliffside Park, N.J., graduated from Ursinus in May with a degree in inequality studies, biology, and neuroscience and is enrolled in Harvard Medical School. At Ursinus, he ran track and worked with the United Students Against Sweatshops in Mexico and studied environmental health problems in the slums of India.

Shah is Ursinus College's first Rhodes scholar. He plans to earn a degree in comparative social policy at Oxford.

Watters, from Newark, Del., is majoring in neuroscience and minoring in political science. He has worked in hospitals in southern Sudan and Haiti and founded a student organization focused on relief work in Haiti. Watters is a nationally competitive mountain biker and will study global health science.

Lanham, from Wooster, Ohio, studied English and philosophy at Haverford. He was the captain of the cross-country team, served as the head of the college honor council, and interned with the Pennsylvania Humanities Council. Lanham now works as a resident tutor for a nonprofit that aids underprivileged minority students in Lower Merion schools. He will study English at Oxford.

Jia, a native of China who grew up in Waltham, Mass., teaches American politics and constitutional history to aspiring diplomats at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing. He was deputy national field director of Students for Obama and interned for the Alliance for Justice and in the late Sen. Edward Kennedy's office. Jia dreams of participating in a constitution-drafting process for democratizing China and will study politics at Oxford.

DiBerardino, of Westport, Conn., is majoring in music composition. At Princeton, he's a student government leader and the founder of the Undergraduate Composer Collective. He has also been a composer in residence at the Brevard Music Center and the European American Musical Alliance in Paris.

Elliott F. Gerson, American secretary of the Rhodes Trust, called the scholarships the "oldest and best-known award for international study, and arguably the most famous academic award available to American college graduates."

The awards were created in 1902 after the death of Cecil Rhodes, a British philanthropist and African colonial pioneer.

Rhodes had hoped the scholars would "esteem the performance of public duties as their highest aim." Winners are chosen on high academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness, respect for others, potential for leadership, and physical vigor.

More than 1,500 students annually seek their college or university's endorsement to apply for the prize. This year, 837 students were endorsed by 309 colleges and universities.

American Rhodes scholars will join a group from 14 other countries. Annually, about 80 scholars are chosen from around the world.

The value of the Rhodes is about $50,000 annually. The prize pays all college and university fees and transportation to and from England. It also provides a stipend.