2 Md. Students Are Among New Rhodes Scholars

Rachel Mazyck was picked from 904 entries. (AP)

Two college students from Maryland were among 32 Americans selected this weekend as Rhodes scholars for 2005, the scholarship trust announced yesterday.

Rachel Y. Mazyck, a Harvard University graduate student studying education policy and management, and Jason D. Shell, a senior history major at the U.S. Naval Academy, were chosen from a field of 904 applicants. They will begin studies next October at Oxford University in England.

Also selected were two other students from the Naval Academy, two from the University of Virginia and another from Georgetown University. The scholarship provides recipients two or three years of study.

Mazyck, of Laurel, graduated at 16 from the National Cathedral School in Washington. She was 19 when she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and worked as a fourth-grade teacher in the Mississippi Delta region for two years.

"I was in shock," said Mazyck, 22, said of her selection, noting that the applicants she met during the process were "a phenomenal group."

Mazyck said educational inequities that she witnessed as a youngster in Maryland spurred her interest in exploring how to bridge the achievement gap between white and minority students. She said she will pursue that topic at Oxford.

"Growing up, I was privileged to be able to attend National Cathedral School and get a phenomenal education there, but at the same time, I saw many of my friends of similar academic ability were not getting the same education," Mazyck said.

"And as time went on, I saw that our lives were kind of going in different directions because of the education we received in middle and high school," she said.

Shell, 21, of Gaithersburg, graduated in 2001 from Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville. He said he plans to study international relations at Oxford.

Shell, who is writing his senior thesis on the Basque separatist group ETA, said he plans to work in special operations for the Navy after completing his master's degree.

"I'm trying to configure my career so that somewhere down the line in national security policy, I'll be adept at dealing with our country's ability to fight counterinsurgencies and to deal with the weapons of mass destruction," Shell said. "I came into the Naval Academy wanting to be a fighter pilot and not knowing how long I'd stay in the Navy, so a lot of this is a result of September 11 happening my freshman year here and coloring everything for me."

The Rhodes scholarships were created in 1902 by the will of Cecil Rhodes, a British philanthropist, diamond magnate and empire-builder. Winners are selected based on academic achievement, integrity and leadership potential, among other qualities.

The Americans will join students from 18 other countries.

Other recipients included Joseph F. Preston of Vero Beach, Fla., and Trevor C. Thompson of Kent, Wash., both seniors at the Naval Academy; Jennifer E. Howitt of Orinda, Calif., a senior at Georgetown University; and from the University of Virginia, Meghan E. Sullivan and Justin D. Mutter. Sullivan is a senior from Greensboro, N.C., and Mutter is a 2003 graduate from Lookout Mountain, Tenn.

This year was the first time since 1929 that three scholars were selected from the Naval Academy.

The students seeking the scholarships were endorsed by 341 colleges and universities.