CORRECTION APPENDED

After being shut out last year for only the second time in 76 years, Harvard has returned to top form in the American Rhodes competition, sweeping the field with six scholarships.

Joshua H. Billings ’07, Casey N. Cep ’07, Brad M. Smith ’05, Parvinder S. Thiara ’07, Ryan R. Thoreson ’07, and Elise D. Wang ’07 were among the 32 scholars chosen from a pool of 896 candidates. The six will begin study at Oxford University next October.

Harvard had the greatest number of Rhodes winners, followed closely by Yale with four.

Smith, who was a Government concentrator in Leverett House, spent the past year and a half on the campaign trail with newly-elected Senator Bob Corker, R-Tenn. While at Harvard, he founded the student group Social Good Through Politics and testified in front of the Senate’s Special Committee for Aging, appealing for Social Security reform. He also served as chairman of the Massachusetts College Republicans and volunteered with the Mission Hill Afterschool Program.

According to Smith, it was “the mix of academic and extracurricular success at Harvard with the practical success of being on the campaign trail was a unique combination of experiences” that may have made him a distinctive candidate.

Casey N. Cep ’07, an English and American Literature and Language concentrator in Pforzheimer House, is a Crimson arts editor, an editor for the Harvard Book Review, and serves as president of The Harvard Advocate. She is currently working on a novel about the Maryland Eastern Shore for her senior thesis.

Cep plans to be a writer in some capacity after graduating from Oxford, and she attributes much of her success to “the opportunity to work with very talented writers and critics of literature, in particular professors Jamaica Kincaid, Elaine Scarry, and Helen Vendler.”

Thiara, a Chemistry concentrator in Kirkland House, founded a nonprofit organization called FAWSIT—the Foundation for the Advancement of Water Sanitation Improvement Technology—after his grandfather died of complications related to infectious diarrhea two years ago. Thiara plans to study for two Masters degrees in theoretical chemistry and water science, management, and policy while at Oxford.

Two of the six Women and Gender Studies (WGS) senior concentrators—Thoreson and Wang—snagged the prestigious prize.

Thoreson, a resident of Lowell House, is the co-chair of the Harvard Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporter Alliance (BGLTSA) and an active member in the Alternative Spring Break AIDS action project.

“I think that one of the best things that WGS is able to provide is a good grasp on critical thinking and that really comes out in the Rhodes process,” he said yesterday.

Wang, a joint concentrator in WGS and Government and a resident of Adams House, serves as managing editor for Diversity and Distinction Magazine, is a layout designer for Swift Magazine, and works at the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women. {SEE CORRECTION BELOW}

Josh H. Billings ’07, a Classics and German concentrator who is affiliated with Leverett House, is editor of the Harvard Book Review, works for Persephone Magazine, and produces and directs opera with the Harvard Early Music Society and the Dunster House Opera. He intends to study European Literature while at Oxford.

Rhodes scholarships provide all expenses for two or three years of study at Oxford. The Rhodes Trust was established by the will of Cecil J. Rhodes, a British philanthropist who earned much of his fortune through colonial activities in Africa.

CORRECTION

Elise D. Wang ’07 is a joint concentrator in the study of women, gender, and sexuality (WGS) and of religion. The Nov. 20 news article "Crimson Scores Six Rhodes" incorrectly stated that Wang was a joint WGS/government concentrator.