Student from UW a Rhodes Scholar
Published 9:00 pm Sunday, November 23, 2003
BOSTON — Thirty-two American college students, including one from Washington state, have been selected as Rhodes Scholars for 2004, the scholarship trust announced Sunday.
Allyssa M. Lamb, a University of Washington senior from Redmond, and her fellow scholars will enter the University of Oxford in England next October, 100 years after the first class of America Rhodes Scholars did in 1904.
Lamb, a double major in classics and biblical and Near Eastern studies, speaks Latin, Greek, Hebrew and interprets hieroglyphics. She plans to study Egyptology at Oxford, according to a brief biography the scholarship trust released Sunday.
In addition to winning a number of awards in classics and humanities, Lamb has studied in Athens and Rome and has worked as a research assistant at an excavation in Israel.
Lamb could not be reached for comment on Sunday. Her grandmother said that Lamb was traveling back to Seattle from San Francisco, where one of several Rhodes Scholarship ceremonies was held.
Lamb’s aunt, Sheryl Lamb of Bothell, described her niece as an avid reader who is as unassuming as she is curious and hard-working.
"Being an African American family, we always had a strong interest in where we came from and the history of people in this country and this world," Sheryl Lamb, 52, said, describing their family as close-knit.
The 32 American students will join an international group of scholars selected from 18 other nations around the world. Approximately 95 scholars are selected annually.
The newest class of Rhodes Scholars includes a female former wing commander who led 4,000 cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy, a political science major who has worked with refugees in the Balkans and Afghanistan, and a national Frisbee champion who was a contributing scientist on a NASA Mars mission.
Rhodes Scholarships were created in 1902 by the will of British philanthropist Cecil Rhodes. Winners are selected on the basis of high academic achievement, personal integrity, leadership potential and physical vigor, among other attributes.
The winners were selected from 963 applicants endorsed by 366 colleges and universities to attend the University of Oxford in England starting next October. Their scholarships provide two or three years of study.
Copyright ©2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
