In the weeks leading up to the Rhodes Scholarship finalist
weekend, I was immersed in preparation: essays to better illustrate my thought
processes, mock interviews, suit shopping, media interviews and meetings with
university officials. But nothing could
have prepared me for the competition that lay ahead.
Friday, November
16, 2012
Friday morning, I was well rested, excited, nervous and calm
all at the same time. I arrived at a
large law firm sky scraper in downtown Seattle much before the noon report
time, and took my time singing and praying in my car, inspecting my suit time
and time again, and then finally telling myself it was okay to get out of my
car and head up to the 29th floor.
On the 29th floor, I was immediately greeted by a secretary
who asked for my official transcripts, and handed me a name tag in
exchange. I looked down at the name tag,
with my name and university affiliation described, and realized that yes
indeed, I was supposed to be there!
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| The view from the 29th floor of K&L Gates in downtown Seattle. |
Name tag in place, I joined a group of equally excited and
nervous individuals in the law firm’s library.
I was fascinated by the vast range of universities and study interests
represented. There were students from
Harvard, Stanford, Western Oregon University, University of Wyoming, and Pomona
College, and everywhere in between! As a
list is not distributed prior to the weekend, this was all new to me! I was excited to find a couple other
neuroscience majors with whom I could talk neuro geek talk, and a bit later on,
I was fascinated by one girl’s research on the link between the Feminist
movement and the current LGBT movement.
It was not long, however, before the secretary of the Rhodes
Committee, Robert Mitchell, joined us in the library, and explained a bit of
what was ahead. We then followed him
down the hall to a room set up for lunch, with the seven committee members
lined up at the entrance in a greeting line.
Down the line, I introduced myself seven times over, but on multiple
occasions one of the committee members would jump in and say “Haiti!” or
“medical student!”, as a way of acknowledging their connection between my face
and name, and my application they had already poured over. The seven committee members, or “players of
the game”, as best as I remember, were:
- Robert Mitchell* – K&L Gates attorney, working on Exon Valdese (committee secretary)
- Gerry Grinstein* – Former CEO of Delta and Burlington Northern Railroad, currently retired (committee chair and only committee member not a former Rhodes Scholar)
- John Melin* – CEO of Brown & Haley candy company (modern day Willy Wonka)
- Malia Fullerton* – Genetic Ethics Researcher at the University of Washington School of Medicine
- Beth Eben* – Harborview Pediatrician and researcher of adolescent risk assessment
- Jennifer Miller – English Renaissance professor at UC Berkley
- Newman Nahas – Defense attorney for Facebook, and other social media
*Denotes committee member who takes part each year
After a few minutes of mingling, Robert Mitchell interrupted
and asked that we gather around in a circle.
He started off by saying that looking around the room, the other
committee members and him had decided that if they were applicants today, they
would have no chance of winning the scholarship (I am sure he gives the same
speech every year). He went on to say
that as no alternates are named, and as papers for enrollment to Oxford are
signed immediately upon announcement of the Rhodes Scholars, if there were any
intention to not go forward, we should excuse ourselves now. He also encouraged us to put down our
electronic devices throughout the weekend, and get to know one another as much
as possible, as “you are all amazing individuals”. We then went around the room and took turns
introducing our name, hometown, university and proposed area of study at
Oxford.
When we were through with introductions, we were asked to
take our seats, marked by an additional name tag. There were three tables, with three spots for
a committee member at each table, and we were warned that between each course,
the committee members would rise and change tables as a way of getting to know
as many of the contestants as possible.
For example, during our salad course, I sat next to Beth Eben, during the
entrée I sat next to Jennifer Miller, and during dessert, no-one filled the
committee member chair directly next to me, but I conversed a bit across the
table with John Melin.
Looking back, I think it would have been intensely
fascinating to have had hidden cameras in the room, so that the nervous and
forced behavior of participants could be analyzed. Overall, I did not want to brown nose, so
found myself holding back even when there were things I could have
contributed. For example, in talking
with Dr. Malia Fullerton about her research on divulging genetics information to
patients, I could have easily mentioned and discussed a New York Times article
I had read just that morning, but I did not want to appear overly eager, so
held back. Other students responded to
the environment in the complete opposite away.
One student at the same table as me, reflected half of the conversation
back on to himself and his home state and university. It irritated me to no end in the moment, but I reminded
myself that he was also responding under pressure, and that the judges were
likely to see right through it (funny thing though, he ended up being one of
the two Rhodes Scholars named at the end of the weekend - and he ended up being a phenomenal and likable guy).
At the end of lunch, our interview schedule was handed out,
and I noted that my randomly selected time was the very middle of the next day
(slot 5 of the 9 possible on Saturday).
We were then given a brief tour of the 29th floor, showing us
where we could wait as a group (the library we had all congregated in earlier),
the holding room we would wait in directly before our interview, and the
interview room itself. And after the
committee members said their good-byes and parted ways, the contestants sat
around a long table in the library, and began sharing a bit more of our
backgrounds and inspiration. After
watching the first two interviewees come back either in visible sweats or
choked back tears, however, I decided that I needed a mental break, so left the
group in agreement to join the others for dinner a bit later on.
That evening, about half of the finalists met up at Club
Contour in downtown Seattle, where we divulged in $3 cheeseburgers. It was nice to see one another outside the
stuffy suits and forced confidence, and we talked in more down to earth
ways. I found myself at the end of the
table with the three finalists from Montana, all of whom had known each other going
into this and who had prepared alongside one another. In fact, two of the guys had even roomed
together at one point! It was a moment
of “wow, small world”, but also an acknowledgement that their university was
doing something right. Overall, though,
I found myself liking the individuals much more with our nervous façade down,
and I recognized the same about myself.
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In front of Brown & Haley Almond Roca, at a grocery store across the street from K&L Gates.
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