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CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. - Shocked. That is how Brett Rosenberg said she felt upon hearing that she had been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to attend the University of Oxford. Rosenberg is one of only 32 Americans to receive the honor in 2011.
"When they said my name I literally sat there for a second, processing the information, making sure that it wasn't somebody else," said Rosenberg, a 2008 Horace Greeley High School Graduate and current senior at Harvard University.
The process for Rosenberg began in September, when she applied for Harvard's institutional endorsement. After receiving the endorsement, she then applied for the national level, where she was chosen as one of 830 finalists. The finalists were narrowed down, with 12 students being interviewed from each of 16 regions. It was not until a few weeks ago that Rosenberg learned the New York region had granted her an interview.
"The interview process was extremely nerve-wracking," said Rosenberg. "Because I got to meet the other 11 finalists and they were incredible people. Not just impressive, but just really nice, kind. We sat for hours together and on Friday and they're just fantastic people. So I feel lucky to even be counted among them."
Rosenberg, a history major, will be graduating from Harvard in May and will then make the trip to the Oxford next October. Her scholarship covers all costs for two or three years of study, which she hopes will be in international relations.
At Harvard, Rosenberg is an editorial columnist for the Harvard Crimson and has written for the New York Times and Harvard Magazine. She was also a fiction and poetry editor of Tuesday Magazine, head research assistant to Professor Niall Fergusson, and a member of the Kuumba Singers, a choir dedicated to black creativity and spiritualism.
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