"I realized that my past was important to me and that I could talk about it when a friend this year asked me if my parents were lawyers," she recalls. "He assumed that I came from a very rich back ground. At that moment, I knew that I could be much more open about my life and that I could talk about my background I wasn't necessarily using it as a crutch."

Besides, Buttner emphatically denies that she is more successful than the majority of the students at Harvard. "The Rhodes Scholarship is very prestigious and well known, but that doesn't mean I'm more accomplished. Many people have spent just as much time as I did as president of the IRC by feeding the poor in Cambridge or organizing panel experts to speak on Latin America."

Buttner's modesty has not gone unnoticed.

"She's very warm for someone with so much talent," Velona says. "She has no intention of trying to impress you or show off. She's rather spend an afternoon telling you how great you are."

So Buttner has managed to overcome enormous obstacles and achieve the heights of collegiate success--while still maintaining a likeable personality. How does she do it?

"What keeps me going?" she laughs. "You forget that there are 24 hours in a day."