When Katharine Sophiea found out she had been nominated to receive a Rhodes scholarship, her dad was ecstatic.
"I think he told just about everyone in the state of Michigan about it," said Sophiea, an English and education senior, who also holds a degree in social relations.
Sophiea is one of eight MSU students who were nominated for three prestigious international awards - the Rhodes, Mitchell and Marshall scholarships.
The other nominees include Daniel Bouk, a 2002 MSU graduate, international relations and finance senior Jared English, chemistry senior Andrew Goetz, art history senior Susannah Fisher, engineering arts and psychology senior Julie Schiller, international relations senior Greta Stahl and international relations senior Sandra Vasher.
Now the students must wait until November to find out if they've been selected for an interview with representatives from one of the scholarship foundations, said Ron Fisher, faculty representative on the committee and director of the MSU Honors College. The representatives then decide the scholarship winners from the narrowed pool of candidates.
Students were nominated by a campus selection committee that evaluated each student's academic, service and leadership credentials, Fisher said.
"Every year, we have really strong candidates," he said. "The difference this year is we have a larger number of nominees than in the past, and they cover a more diverse range of majors."
There are 32 scholarships given out by Rhodes, 40 by Marshall and 12 by Mitchell each year. Rhodes scholars study for two years at Oxford University in England. To apply for the scholarship, applicants must submit eight letters of recommendation, said David Bailey, coordinator of MSU's major scholarships.
"Do you know eight people who could make a recommendation for you?" Bailey said. "I sure don't know eight who could make that many for me."
Applying can be a very stressful process, especially when students have other responsibilities, said English. English, who is an ASMSU Academic Assembly chairperson, is a Rhodes and Marshall scholar nominee.
"You have to put together an application and get letters of recommendation from very important and busy people, and at the same time, there are things going on on campus that require your attention," English said.
A 2003 Truman scholar, English said winning would be great, but he said he would be modest if he won.
"My first plan would be to a call my family and tell them," he said. "I'm sure they'd make a big deal out of it, but I would just take it in strides."
Schiller, who applied for the Rhodes scholarship, said she would study information engineering, creating computational models to be used in applications such as wearable robots, which assist blind people in crossing the street or driving a car.
She said she wouldn't know what to do if she were awarded the scholarship.
"I guess I'd buy a plane ticket," Schiller said.
