8 with N.E. ties among new Rhodes Scholars

One young woman has been trying to inspire children in rural Vietnam to go to college. Another is helping abused women in Sri Lanka foster a better sense of self-respect.

Their work this past year has contributed to their being named Rhodes Scholars. They are among 32 recipients nationally, including eight with ties to New England, who earned the highly sought-after annual scholarships late Saturday evening, the culmination of two-grueling days of interviewing and hobnobbing at regional competitions nationwide.

The announcements coincided with that of another prestigious academic award Saturday night: the US-Ireland Alliance named two Yale University students and 10 other recipients to the 10th Anni versary Class of George J. Mitchell Scholars. The award pays for one year of study at Irish and Northern Ireland universities.

The two women hope their time as Rhodes Scholars will help provide them the expertise and the professional contacts to turn their small grass-roots organizations into global initiatives. The Rhodes pays for two or three years at England's Oxford University, valued roughly at $45,000 annually.

"I feel very lucky," said Julia Parker Goyer, a doctoral candidate at Harvard University's School of Education, who last year started the Coach for College program in Vietnam, to inspire children to go to college by getting them excited about sports.

Parker Goyer, of Birmingham, Ala., said part of her program's goal, aside from helping underserved children, is to enable college athletes to volunteer overseas. As a college tennis player at Duke University, she said it was often too difficult to participate in oversea programs because the time commitment would overlap with college athletic seasons.

Her program works with dozens of Vietnamese children in three-week sessions, helping them acquire skills in such areas as leadership, team work, critical thinking, and higher education. The children learn badminton, tennis, volleyball, soccer, and basketball on an athletic court her organization built in a village.

"I feel like I learned so many life lessons as a student athlete that will help me succeed in other areas," Parker Goyer said in an interview yesterday, adding that she hopes the children will acquire the same life lessons.

Alia Whitney-Johnson, a senior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was motivated to create her group, Emerge Global, after visiting Sri Lanka after the tsunami three years ago. She was heartbroken when she came across an 11-year-old girl who had bore a child and was ostracized by her family.

"We are trying to help these girls reestablish their self worth and self respect, and celebrate their own inner beauty," said Whitney-Johnson, of Leicester, N.C, in a telephone interview yesterday.

The two women will depart to Oxford in October 2009.

Having a student selected as a Rhodes or Mitchell scholar is a coveted honor sought by many colleges and universities as a way to boost prestige. Even the nation's most elite colleges are eager to boast a win, especially the Rhodes.

Harvard, for instance, posted a press release on its website promoting three Rhodes Scholars. However, the Rhodes Trust technically gave only two wins to Harvard this weekend because Parker Goyer's application was sponsored by her undergraduate institution, Duke.

According to the trust's tally, Harvard and MIT tied in New England for the most, with two apiece.

The official Harvard representatives chosen were Malorie N. Snider, of Friendswood, Texas, and Kyle Q. Haddad-Fonda, of Issaquah, Wash., while the second MIT student was Matthew L. Gethers III, of Waterbury, Conn.

The other New England recipients were Rakim H.D. Brooks of the Bronx, N.Y., who attends Brown University; R. Jisung Park of Shelton, Conn., who is at Columbia University; and Jarrad M. Aguirre of Centennial, Colo.,who attends Yale.

The scholarships were created in 1902 by the will of Cecil Rhodes, a British philanthropist and African colonial pioneer. More than 1,500 students compete for the scholarships.

The Mitchell Scholar recipients with New England ties were Matthew Baum of Watertown and Rebekah Emanuel of Evanston, Ill., who both attend Yale.

The scholarship was named for former senate majority leader George Mitchell of Maine.