From the director of his Children's choir back home in Mercer Island, Wash., as quoted in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "Everyone liked him. He was so sweet and brilliant."

Besides being one of the most likable Harvard students, he may also be one of the easiest to impersonate. Here's how to do it:

First, say hello to pretty much everyone you meet, because everyone knows Drew. During a 45-minute interview in an uncrowded courtyard, nearly a dozen people interrupted to greet the affable Hansen.

Second, speak so quickly no one could possibly understand everything you are saying. Hansen honed his speed-talking skills in his debating days, where he and his partner eventually took third place at the National Forensic league tournament. To this day, listeners are amazed by the rapidity of his thought and speech.

And of course, affect the trademark Hansen mannerism, one Drew shares with sister Janna J. Hansen '97: clenched fists raised to ear level and shaken while emitting a high-pitched "woo-hoo."

Much of the rest of Hansen's behavior betrays his Seattle-area roots. For one thing, he can be found at nearly any time at the Harvard Square Coffee Connection. While Hansen estimates he made three trips a week to the crowded beverage business, sources say he can be found there nearly every night.

And Hansen himself says that during the final weeks of his thesis, he would spend three or more hours a day nursing his medium mug of black coffee through the full temperature spectrum.

(Hansen acknowledges that the Seattle-based Starbucks would be a more natural hangout for the Northwesterner, but he says Coffee Connection was too ingrained in his system by the time the larger chain opened its Boston Locations).

But his affection for caffeinated concoctions is not the only giveaway of his Seattle heritage; he also is an irrepressible Supersonics Fan. "They broke my heart again," he said after the Lakers handed the team its second straight early exit from the playoffs.

While the city may not be able to provide big wins on the court, it has provided Hansen with all the attention he could want. Both of Seattle's daily newspaper's featured Hansen in front-page stories last December. One included plaudits from Hansen's children's choir director, high school humanities teacher and debate coach.

Hansen will study Christian ethics next fall at Oxford, strolling the same courtyards that Lewis once strolled. There he will wrestle not only with the immediate question of his own future--he has considered ministry, politics and law as possible careers--but also eternal questions of truth.