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We may not win football games, but we can sure win prestigious scholarships! Well, at least Cal graduate Asya Passinsky can. She is the first UC Berkeley alumna in five years to win a Rhodes Scholarship–which grants her a few years of free study at Oxford University. If you’re having trouble fathoming the significance of this honor, imagine this: Snagging a Rhodes is like getting an acceptance owl from Hogwarts. Past winners include President Bill Clinton and J.R.R. Tolkien, among other famous people.We’re rooting for Asya to attain as much success as those two gentlemen have–minus the sex scandals and hobbits. As we glance at Inside Bay Area, however, it seems she was already well on her way to success long before the Rhodes.
Passinsky seems no different than her peers. She is a longtime figure skater, freelance arts reviewer and sometimes investigative journalist for a newspaper in Russia.
Yes, Passinsky is just like us because most of us can do triple axles, watch ballets and write exposes simultaneously. If other Berkeley students are truly this accomplished, if not more–why don’t we garner the prestigious honor more often? Perhaps our students are above the superficiality of so-called “prestige”?Nah.
Before Passinsky, Ankur Luthra in 2002 was the first UC Berkeley student to win the award in 14 years. Hayes said the award has been “somewhat elusive for Berkeley students,” in part because the lack of faculty-student relationships makes gathering the requisite five to eight letters of recommendation difficult.
Think about how many opportunities we’re missing precisely because we don’t have that special faculty-student ratio–scholarships, grad schools, jobs. Start sucking up, people.In related news, Stanfurd beat us with a whopping three Rhodes Scholars who hail from the Palo Alto campus. The Clog doesn’t want to say it, but maybe it’s a sign.Alumna Off to Oxford as New Rhodes Scholar [Daily Cal]Cal grad chosen as U.S. Rhodes scholar [Bay Insider]The Rhodes Scholarship [Web site]
Tags:Asya Passinsky, Bill Clinton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Oxford University, Rhodes Scholarship
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