On the morning after David Silva received a phone call telling him that he won a Marshall Scholarship, the Ezra Stiles College senior wondered if he had dreamt the honor. "I got the call late at night, on the same day that I had my interview, so it took me a minute to realize that it had really happened," says Mr. Silva. He quickly got back to doing what he had been before he got the news -- studying for his finals -- but with the new thrill of knowing that he had been granted the opportunity to study next year in Britain.
During that same week in December, exciting news also came to Yale senior Tali Farhadian, also of Ezra Stiles College, and recent graduates Josh Civin '96 and Amy Ng '96, who were chosen to receive Rhodes Scholarships in a challenging international competition. Marshall Scholar
Mr. Silva is among 40 American college seniors selected to receive this year's Marshall Scholarships, which are considered one of the highest undergraduate accolades. The award covers tuition costs, books, travel and living expenses in the United Kingdom for up to three years. In addition to academic distinction, Marshall Scholars are also considered likely to become leaders in their field and make a contribution to society. The award was established in 1953 by the British Parliament as a gesture of thanks to the American people for assistance received from the Marshall Plan after World War II.
Mr. Silva, who is majoring in both political science and philosophy, plans to study next year at King's College, the University of London, where he will explore Enlightenment criticism of Aristotle's ethics. "My focus is on how philosophical ideals can be practically applied in the contemporary world," says the Marshall Scholar, who hails from Fall River, Massachusetts.
Since freshman year, Mr. Silva has been engaged in a variety of extracurricular activities. He interned in the office of a public defender in New Haven's Superior Court during his first two years on campus and was involved in the Yale Political Union. Two years ago, he won a fellowship to pursue research on public interest law at Harvard Law School. He has been a volunteer for Reach Out Speak Out, a volunteer organization that teaches debate and public speaking to area high school students, and worked last summer helping to coordinate Congressional campaigns in Georgia. Currently an intern for the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, Mr. Silva's long- range goals include a legal career.
Ezra Stiles ES college dean Susan Rieger said that Mr. Silva belongs to an eight-member group of students at ES called "The Apostles," who enjoy sharing in discussions of philosophy and other subjects. "They see no boundary between the classroom and the dining room in that they carry on similar conversations in both places," says Ms. Rieger. "And David would rather talk about or debate something than eat. He loves to take part in intellectual exchanges, and he's just wonderfully bright." Rhodes Scholars
Ms. Farhadian, Ms. Ng and Mr. Civin are among 85 individuals internationally who were selected from some 1,000 Rhodes Scholarship applicants. Like the Marshall Scholarship, the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship fully supports up to three years of study at leading British universities. It was established in 1902 by the will of Cecil Rhodes, a British colonial financier and entrepreneur, and is awarded to students who have distinguished themselves both academically and outside of the classroom.
Tali Farhadian, of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, will pursue a master's degree in Oriental studies at Oxford University, where she will concentrate on medieval Arabic poetry. Among the subjects she has explored at Yale, where she is majoring in the humanities, is Andalusian literature.
A varsity member of the Yale Debate Association, Ms. Farhadian is active in the Jewish women's community, for which she has written and edited the Women's Haggadah, a feminist interpretation of the traditional Jewish Passover text. She also has been a volunteer for Reach Out Speak Out and last year was a coordinator of the organization. In addition, she served a term as a member of the Executive Committee at Dwight Hall.
Dean Rieger cites Ms. Farhadian's intense intellectual curiosity and her diverse background as her special qualities.
"Tali has this very interesting background in that she is a Persian Jew, born in Iran, who later moved to Israel and then quite recently became a U.S. citizen," she says. "So she speaks Persian and Hebrew and English, and also studied Arabic here. She's a real intellectual who cares about ideas, and she has a quality about her that makes you believe in her, makes you have confidence in her. So in addition to being extremely bright and always interesting, she is skilled and competent and has great personal charm."
Amy Ng, who applied for the Rhodes Scholarship through her native Hong Kong, was the sole winner from that country. Since graduating last year with a joint B.A. M.A. degree in history and East Asian studies, she has spent some time traveling and is now working as a researcher for Yale anthropologist Helen Siu.
Ms. Ng's area of academic interest has been in the influence of European intellectual thought on 20th-century China. She will study history at Oxford University with the goal of earning a Doctor of Philosophy degree.
A member of the Hong Kong national speed skating team, Ms. Ng participated in a range of extracurricular activities while she was an undergraduate. She was a member of the executive board of the Yale International Relations Association; served as program coordinator for the Yale International Educational Project; directed the Hong Kong Society at Yale; and sang in two campus choirs, among other activities.
"Educated in Chinese-language schools and then in a New England boarding school, Amy had to cope with an education probably more difficult linguistically than her American counterparts," says history professor Beatrice Bartlett, who taught Ms. Ng in two courses. Professor Bartlett recalls how Ms. Ng's research also required her to study materials in Chinese used during the Qing dynasty that is "difficult for some native speakers to understand today."
"Amy never took her language advantages for granted," she adds. "Even though she writes English beautifully, and won a prize for drama criticism her first year, she ceaselessly worked at her English writing. Over the years I often heard the words, 'I have to take this to the college writing tutor.' She made the most of other Yale resources as well. ... Amy took Yale as the best kind of intellectual adventure that it can be and made the most of it."
Josh Civin, like the other award winners, also made time during his undergraduate years to be actively involved in campus life and in the New Haven community, focusing particularly on political issues. He was elected the alderman for the city's first ward during his senior year and has served since his freshmen year as cochair of the First Ward Democratic Committee. He also helped to promote the interest of fellow students in local political affairs as the founder, during his sophomore year, of Students for Progress, which brought in political activists to talk about local issues. It later became known as the Calhoun College Urban Teas and is now called PULL, or Perspectives on Urban Living and Leadership.
Mr. Civin, who comes from Baltimore, Maryland, majored in history at Yale. He was presented two of Yale's top academic prizes during Commencement ceremonies last year the Warren Memorial High Scholarship Prize and the Alpheus Henry Snow Prize and was recognized that same year by USA Today as one of the top 20 students in the country. He currently serves as a program coordinator for LEAP Leadership, Education and Athletics in Partnership and is engaged in a variety of initiatives in his role as alderman, focusing much of his attention on the problem of homelessness.
"There are several qualities that distinguish Josh," says Dr. William Sledge, master of Calhoun College, of which Mr. Civin was a member. "He's very intelligent and clear in his thinking. He also stands out for his commitment to issues of urban life, primarily his focus on the disadvantaged. Part of this commitment is to have things work out better -- he wants to help improve other people's lives in a practical and pragmatic way."
Mr. Civin will study next year at Oxford University. His aspiration is to continue to combine his interest in history and his involvement in public service. "One of the reasons that Oxford is so appealing is that I feel that I can broaden my perspective on the way that different communities mobilize to deal with grassroots issues," says Mr. Civin.