By IANS
New York : Three Indian origin students are among five South Asians in the US who have won the prestigious Rhodes scholarship, which provides for two to three years of study at Oxford University in England.
They are among the 32 American Rhodes scholars announced Saturday by the scholarship trust.
Apart from the three Indian origin students, one is of Pakistani origin, and another is an Indo-Caribbean from Trinidad.
Shayak Sarkar has graduated from Harvard with a master’s in statistics. He is interested in applying his analytic skills in mathematics, statistics and economics to the problems of poverty, especially affordable housing and education reform. He intends to do a doctorate in evidence-based social work at Oxford.
Pravin S. Rajan has graduated from Georgetown University with majors in science, technology and international relations. He is now a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps and will train to become a Marine Infantry Officer in Iraq. His plan is to do a D.Phil. in international relations.
Deep J. Shah is a senior at the University of Georgia where he majors in international affairs and biology. He has publications in both public policy and biochemistry and has served as an intern in the US Senate and New York City hospitals. He plans to do his M.Sc. in global health science.
Isra J. Bhatty graduated from the University of Chicago in 2006 with majors in economics and near eastern languages and literature. She is now studying at Yale Law School. She is an English-Urdu translator of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, led a Chicago coalition on criminal justice reform and chaired Chicago’s inner-city Muslim Action Network. She plans to do an M.Phil. in evidence-based social intervention.
Ishanaa N. Rambachan is a senior at St. Olaf College where she majors in political science and economics. She has interests in international development and has studied or worked in Turkey, Egypt, and with an NGO in microcredit and women’s empowerment in India. She has written about discrimination against the Hindu diaspora and about caste abuses in India. She plans to do her M.Phil. in development studies.
At least one of the other scholars has a South Asia connection. Nicole Novak of Iowa has done research on dental health and socio-economic status in India.
Past Rhodes scholars from America include president Bill Clinton, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and eminent surgeon and bestselling writer Atul Gawande.