KU News Release

KU names five to compete in Rhodes, Marshall, Mitchell scholar competitions

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas has nominated five students to compete for the prestigious Rhodes, Marshall and Mitchell scholarships, which provide tuition and living expenses for graduate study in Great Britain or Ireland.

The nominees will be honored at a reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20, in Nunemaker Center, 1506 Engel Road.

The nominees and the scholarships for which they are competing are:

— Lucas Todd Thompson, Lawrence senior; Rhodes, Marshall and Mitchell
— Terrence Gordon Peterson, Overland Park senior; Marshall and Mitchell
— Trisha Renee Shrum, spring 2006 graduate from Olathe; Rhodes and Marshall
— Michelle Thi Tran, Derby senior; Rhodes and Marshall
— Anne Isabel McEnroe, Lawrence senior; Rhodes and Marshall

The Marshall Commission awards about 40 scholarships nationally. Regional finalists are interviewed in one of eight regions Nov. 6-11. KU nominees selected for regional interviews will travel to Chicago along with other competitors from Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The 2007-08 Marshall scholars will be announced after the interviews. Those selected are asked to accept or decline the offer within 10 to 12 days.

The Rhodes Foundation selects 32 scholars annually. Rhodes competitions take place Nov. 17 and 18 in 16 U.S. districts. If invited, KU nominees will interview in Kansas City, Mo., alongside competitors from a district that includes Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Mississippi. Two winners are selected from each district and will be announced Nov. 19 or 20. Separate state interviews are no longer conducted.

Only 12 Mitchell scholarships are awarded. The Mitchell competition will be narrowed to 20 finalists who will be interviewed in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 18. Winners will be announced Jan. 14.

KU students have won 25 Rhodes scholarships since 1904, more than all other Kansas colleges and universities combined, and nine Marshall scholarships since 1965.

Rhodes scholarships were first offered in 1903 and the Marshalls in 1953. The George J. Mitchell Scholarships were established in 1998 and first awarded in 2001. Rhodes scholarships may be used only at Oxford University; Marshall scholarships at any British university. Mitchell scholarships are offered by the U.S.-Irleand Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to educating Americans about Ireland.

Brief biographical information about each KU nominee follows:

DOUGLAS COUNTY
From Lawrence
Anne Isabel McEnroe is preparing for a career teaching classics at the university level. Her goals include helping her classics students recognize links to recent history and contemporary life. McEnroe will graduate in spring 2007 with majors in classics and English literature. She has an Undergraduate Research Award to examine the influence of Virgil’s poetry on the writing of St. Augustine from his conversion to Christianity through old age. Her proposal received a J. Michael Young Award for one of the top research proposals in the humanities. A National Merit Scholar, McEnroe is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies. At KU, she volunteers as a Latin tutor and for Audio-Reader Network, a radio service for blind and print-disabled individuals. While studying abroad at the University of Edinburgh, she volunteered with the Oxfam bookshop and the Sisters of Mercy project to serve meals to the needy. McEnroe was secretary for Sellards Scholarship Hall and co-president of the KU Classics Club. She is the daughter of Bruce McEnroe and Michelle Tamburini, and is a Lawrence Free State High School graduate.

Lucas Todd Thompson has a long-term goal of public service, particularly as a mediator in regional and ethnic conflicts. He will have completed four majors when he graduates in May: American studies, English literature, history and political science. Thompson is a National Merit Scholar, a Chancellors Club Scholar and has a Dole Institute scholarship. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies. Thompson has conducted original research in all four majors and received an Undergraduate Research Award to examine religion in Kansas. As a member of the Student Senate, Thompson has been an advocate for standardization of student wages, rerouting public transit buses and protecting student privacy. He is a second-degree brown belt in KU’s Tae Kwon Do club and is active in the KU Fencing Club. During a semester at Cambridge University in England, he played rugby and participated in the drama society. He is the son of Todd and Caprice Thompson, and a graduate of Lawrence Free State High School.

JOHNSON COUNTY
From Olathe
Trisha Renee Shrum graduated with distinction with bachelor’s degrees in environmental studies and ecology and evolutionary biology in spring 2006. She minored in economics. Her career goals include serving as a policy adviser on the environment, not only in the United States but also in Latin America. Shrum is a two-time Morris K. Udall Scholar, one of 80 students selected nationally in 2004 and 2005. As a junior, Shrum worked on forest regeneration in Costa Rica through the Organization for Tropical Studies at Duke University. Her KU honors thesis focused on the economic benefits of land conservation from ecotourism revenues, bioprospecting and biodiversity, particularly in Latin America. Shrum was a National Merit Scholar and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa honor society. She was president of the KU Environs club and co-chair of the Student Senate outdoor recycling committee and volunteered with Habitat for Humanity. Shrum has worked as a lab assistant for the Kansas Biological Survey at KU and as an environmental policy intern at KU’s Policy Research Institute. Presently employed in Lawrence and Overland Park, she is the daughter of Ron and Sue Shrum, and is an Olathe South High School graduate.

From Overland Park
Terrence Gordon Peterson plans to teach modern European history at the university level. He is particularly interested in researching events at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th in England and France and the French resistance during World War II. As a freshman, Peterson presented his research on the lack of advancement of women’s citizenship rights during the French Revolution at a history conference at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He received two Undergraduate Research Awards in 2005 for his work on the role of women in the French resistance. Peterson presented his findings at the 2006 Midwest conference of women’s and gender historians. Peterson is vice president of Grace Pearson Scholarship Hall. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa honor society, Pi Alpha Theta national history honor society and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Peterson is a team captain in KU’s intramural men’s soccer program. He has won awards for his miniatures in the Golden Demon contest sponsored by Games Workshop and is a board member for Adepticon, a Midwest miniature gaming conference. He is the son of Kenneth and Megan Peterson, and is an Olathe East High School graduate.

SEDGWICK COUNTY
From Derby
Michelle Tran’s long-range goal is to create solutions to international conflict and global poverty as an agent of change. She plans to graduate in spring 2007 with majors in Slavic languages and literatures and Russian, East European and Eurasian studies and a minor in Arabic. Tran is a Harry S. Truman Scholar, one of 75 selected from across the nation last spring. In 2005, Tran was named a Thomas R. Pickering Fellow for students interested in foreign service careers. She was also one of two students selected by Oxfam America as U.S. representatives to the Oxfam International Youth Parliament in Hong Kong in December 2005. At KU, Tran has served as president of the Dennis E. Rieger Scholarship Hall and was named a Woman of Distinction by the Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center. Her many campus activities include serving as coordinator for Lawrence Fair Trade and as the founder and president of KU Carpool, a group that helps commuting students conserve gas through carpools. She is the daughter of Chinh and Lan Tran, and is a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, N.H.

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