Undergraduate
Saint Michael’s senior wins a coveted Rhodes Scholarship
Senior Jamila Headley is a worldwide volunteer
Contact Information:
Buff Lindau, Public Relations
802.654.2536
blindau@smcvt.edu
Jamila Headley, a Saint Michael's College senior political science major and global studies minor, now studying abroad in Jordan, has been named a 2006 Rhodes Scholar, following a day-long interview session in her home country of Barbados yesterday.
Ms. Headley told the Barbados Advocate, “I think the biggest preparation was with all my professors and my mentors in my life coming around me and saying, you know, just be yourself, and if that can't win you the scholarship, then it's not for you.”
In three years at Saint Michael’s, Ms. Headley, who has earned a perfect 4.0 grade point average, has traveled to some of the most inhospitable places on the globe, to do volunteer work. These have included Tanzania, Oman, post-tsunami Sri Lanka and post-Katrina New Orleans.
At the same time, she has been a player in one of the major health crises and health policy issues in the world today. Ms. Headley is on the steering committee for the HIV/AIDS advocacy Health Global Access Project and the Black AIDS Institute. She has traveled twice with her Saint Michael’s political science professor Patricia Siplon to do AIDS education work in Tanzania, and plans to return there in May of 2007 following her graduation from Saint Michael's College.
Beginning her Rhodes Scholarship in October of 2007, Ms. Headley plans to pursue two master’s programs, the first in Global Health Policy and the second in International Development.
According to the Rhodes Web site “The Rhodes Scholarships, the oldest international fellowships, were initiated after the death of Cecil Rhodes in 1902, and bring outstanding students from many countries around the world to the University of Oxford. The first American Scholars were elected in 1904.”
“American Rhodes Scholars are selected through a decentralized process by which regional selection committees choose 32 Scholars each year from among those nominated by selection committees in each of the fifty states. Through 2004, applicants from more than 300 American colleges and universities had been selected as Rhodes Scholars. In most years, a Rhodes Scholar is selected from an institution which has not formerly supplied a successful applicant.”
Saint Michael's College, however, had a Rhodes Scholar in 1973, Michael Koziol, Ph.D., who is now head of food engineering at the University of San Francisco in Quito, Ecuador.
The Rhodes Web site says further, “Intellectual distinction is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for election to a Rhodes Scholarship. Selection committees are charged to seek excellence in qualities of mind and in qualities of person which, in combination, offer the promise of effective service to the world in the decades ahead.”
Famous Rhodes alumni include former President Bill Clinton, former NBA star, Senator Bill Bradley, Supreme Court Justice David Souter, and other statesmen and academic leaders.
“Applications are sought from talented students without restriction as to their field of academic specialization or career plans although the proposed course of study must be available at Oxford, and the applicant's undergraduate program must provide a sufficient basis for further study in the proposed field.
“Rhodes Scholars are elected for two years of study at the University of Oxford, with the possibility of renewal for a third year. All educational costs, such as matriculation, tuition, laboratory and certain other fees, are paid on the Scholar's behalf by the Rhodes Trustees.
Saint Michael’s College, founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President Marc A. vanderHeyden, has been identified by U. S. News & World Report for 17 consecutive years as one of the top15 Master’s Universities in the North. A liberal arts, residential, Catholic college located in the Burlington area of Vermont, Saint Michael’s was recently invited to sponsor a chapter of the prestigious academic honor society, Phi Beta Kappa, on campus. Saint Michael’s has 1,950 full-time undergraduate students, and some 500 graduate students and 200 international students, studying part time. The College was named recently by Newsweek magazine a “Hidden Treasure,” one of 30 colleges recommended most frequently by guidance counselors for being “schools that deserve more national recognition.” Saint Michael’s is included in Princeton Review’s The Best 361 Colleges: 2007 Edition.
Photo of Jamila Headley by Andy Duback
Buff Lindau, Public Relations
802.654.2536
blindau@smcvt.edu
Jamila Headley, a Saint Michael's College senior political science major and global studies minor, now studying abroad in Jordan, has been named a 2006 Rhodes Scholar, following a day-long interview session in her home country of Barbados yesterday. Ms. Headley told the Barbados Advocate, “I think the biggest preparation was with all my professors and my mentors in my life coming around me and saying, you know, just be yourself, and if that can't win you the scholarship, then it's not for you.”
In three years at Saint Michael’s, Ms. Headley, who has earned a perfect 4.0 grade point average, has traveled to some of the most inhospitable places on the globe, to do volunteer work. These have included Tanzania, Oman, post-tsunami Sri Lanka and post-Katrina New Orleans.
At the same time, she has been a player in one of the major health crises and health policy issues in the world today. Ms. Headley is on the steering committee for the HIV/AIDS advocacy Health Global Access Project and the Black AIDS Institute. She has traveled twice with her Saint Michael’s political science professor Patricia Siplon to do AIDS education work in Tanzania, and plans to return there in May of 2007 following her graduation from Saint Michael's College.
Beginning her Rhodes Scholarship in October of 2007, Ms. Headley plans to pursue two master’s programs, the first in Global Health Policy and the second in International Development.
According to the Rhodes Web site “The Rhodes Scholarships, the oldest international fellowships, were initiated after the death of Cecil Rhodes in 1902, and bring outstanding students from many countries around the world to the University of Oxford. The first American Scholars were elected in 1904.”
“American Rhodes Scholars are selected through a decentralized process by which regional selection committees choose 32 Scholars each year from among those nominated by selection committees in each of the fifty states. Through 2004, applicants from more than 300 American colleges and universities had been selected as Rhodes Scholars. In most years, a Rhodes Scholar is selected from an institution which has not formerly supplied a successful applicant.”
Saint Michael's College, however, had a Rhodes Scholar in 1973, Michael Koziol, Ph.D., who is now head of food engineering at the University of San Francisco in Quito, Ecuador.
The Rhodes Web site says further, “Intellectual distinction is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for election to a Rhodes Scholarship. Selection committees are charged to seek excellence in qualities of mind and in qualities of person which, in combination, offer the promise of effective service to the world in the decades ahead.”
Famous Rhodes alumni include former President Bill Clinton, former NBA star, Senator Bill Bradley, Supreme Court Justice David Souter, and other statesmen and academic leaders.
“Applications are sought from talented students without restriction as to their field of academic specialization or career plans although the proposed course of study must be available at Oxford, and the applicant's undergraduate program must provide a sufficient basis for further study in the proposed field.
“Rhodes Scholars are elected for two years of study at the University of Oxford, with the possibility of renewal for a third year. All educational costs, such as matriculation, tuition, laboratory and certain other fees, are paid on the Scholar's behalf by the Rhodes Trustees.
Saint Michael’s College, founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President Marc A. vanderHeyden, has been identified by U. S. News & World Report for 17 consecutive years as one of the top15 Master’s Universities in the North. A liberal arts, residential, Catholic college located in the Burlington area of Vermont, Saint Michael’s was recently invited to sponsor a chapter of the prestigious academic honor society, Phi Beta Kappa, on campus. Saint Michael’s has 1,950 full-time undergraduate students, and some 500 graduate students and 200 international students, studying part time. The College was named recently by Newsweek magazine a “Hidden Treasure,” one of 30 colleges recommended most frequently by guidance counselors for being “schools that deserve more national recognition.” Saint Michael’s is included in Princeton Review’s The Best 361 Colleges: 2007 Edition.
Photo of Jamila Headley by Andy Duback
