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For Immediate Release
November 21 , 2005
nebraska wesleyan student wins prestigious rhodes scholarship
LINCOLN, Neb. — A Nebraska Wesleyan University senior has been awarded one of the nation’s most prestigious scholarships.
Xuan-Trang Thi Ho is one of 32 students nationwide selected for a 2006 Rhodes Scholarship.
“We are so very fortunate to have such an unusually talented and gracious student on our campus,” said Joe Gow, Provost and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “The Nebraska Wesleyan community is privileged to bask in the glow of the accomplishments of this extraordinary woman.”
Ho, a political science and Spanish major, will enter Oxford University in England next October to pursue a master’s of philosophy degree in Latin American studies. She hopes to eventually work with U.S. foreign policy and relations with Latin America.
“Words can not describe how I feel,” Ho said upon learning of her scholarship, which was awarded following district interviews on November 19.
Rhodes scholarships are awarded to students who demonstrate high academic achievement, integrity of character, spirit of unselfishness, potential for leadership, and physical vigor. Winners attend Oxford University in England. All tuition and college-related fees are waived; a stipend is provided to cover other study expenses, and travel to and from England is paid for. The award is valued at $40,000 per year for two to three years, depending on the scholar’s field of study. Scholars were selected from 903 applicants.
This is not Ho’s first experience at winning a prestigious national scholarship. In March, she was awarded a $30,000 Harry S. Truman scholarship for graduate school. She was one of 75 to win the award and the only recipient from Nebraska.
In 1994, Ho arrived in Nebraska with her family as a political refugee from Vietnam. Her experience living in a South Vietnam village as one of eight children of subsistence farmers has prompted her interest in public service.
Among her many activities, Ho has taught English-as-second-language classes, volunteered at Bryan LGH Medical Center East, worked with the homeless in Washington, D.C., helped at a community house for HIV/AIDS patients in North Carolina, helped build homes for the homeless in El Salvador, and assisted disabled children in Nicaragua. Last summer, she helped lead a group of Nebraska Wesleyan University students to her birthplace in Vietnam where they assisted victims of Agent Orange. She currently helps teach a first-year student seminar on Middle East and Islamic countries, and is employeed with International Communications, Inc., as a certified medical interpreter. She is a graduate of Lincoln High School.
Ho is the first Nebraska Wesleyan University student to win a Rhodes Scholarship since 1913.
See the complete list of Nebraska Wesleyan's national scholarship and award winners.
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