Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Student Named Rhodes Scholar

Jennifer E. Howitt (SFS ’05) is one of 32 students nationwide selected for a 2005 Rhodes Scholarship.

The recipients of the award were announced Sunday morning.

“Jennifer has made Georgetown extremely proud,” University President John J. DeGioia said in a university press release. “Her intelligence and leadership are remarkable and I am certain she will continue to make her mark on the world through her academic, personal and professional achievements.”

Howitt, an international politics major, will enter Oxford University in England next October to pursue a doctorate in development studies. She described being given the scholarship, which funds two or three years of study at Oxford, as a surreal experience.

“My first reaction is that I don’t deserve it,” she said. “I’m flattered and excited.”

Howitt won a gold medal in the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games with the 11 other members of the U.S. women’s wheelchair basketball team. She has been in a wheelchair since the age of nine when she lost her legs in hiking accident.

Since then, Howitt has participated and coached youth wheelchair sports and sought to improve access for the disabled in the developing world.

She described disability issues as “multi-faceted” and emphasized the importance of advocating for the rights of the disabled through both grassroots and global means.

“It’s about helping people to succeed in their own lives – getting a chair, prosthetics, access to education and loans to start their own businesses . The macro side is pressuring the government or helping groups to form within countries,” she said. “An American group can’t tell another country what to do.”

Howitt also said she was concerned about the obstacles that arise when advocating for resources for the disabled.

“There is stigma associated with disability,” she said. “Disability is sometimes viewed as a punishment for something done wrong. It varies by culture and religion.”

Howitt discussed how infrastructure can affect the ability of a country to assist disabled residents. “If you work in country that is poor, it is difficult to work toward access,” she said.

In addition to her undergraduate studies at Georgetown, Howitt studied abroad at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

Fellowship secretary John Glavin said he was very impressed with this year’s applicants from Georgetown.

“This is a very strong record that reflects well on all of these talented and industrious students,” he said.

Glavin invited Howitt and others with high GPAs to apply for the scholarship during their junior year. After 10 were endorsed by the university, six people – Jonathan Kirschner (COL ’05), Edward Price (SFS ’05), Sabrina Nguyen (MSB ’05), Jason Crawford (COL ’05) and Howitt – were offered interviews at the state level. Howitt and Price both advanced to the district level.

Howitt is the first Georgetown student to win since 2002, when Anthony House (COL ’02) received the distinction.

She entered from her hometown of Orinda, Calif., which is considered District VIII. “California is one of the harder divisions,” Howitt said. “It was an impressive group of people.”

Glavin said he was delighted to write the university endorsement for Howitt.

“Jen Howitt has got it all. Jen Howitt has done it all. She has, literally, turned misfortune into a gift. And then made over that gift to others still mired in misfortune,” he said.

The Rhodes Scholarship was created in 1902 by the British philanthropist and colonial pioneer Cecil Rhodes. It is awarded to students on the basis of high academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness, respect for others, potential for leadership and physical vigor.

The U.S. Rhodes Scholars were selected from a pool of 904 applicants endorsed by 341 colleges and universities. They will join others from 18 other jurisdictions around the world, a total of 95 scholars, to study at Oxford.

Eighteen Georgetown students have won the award since 1984. Former President Bill Clinton (SFS ’68) also won the Rhodes Scholarship.

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