KU News Release

LAWRENCE — Four University of Kansas students are competing for prestigious Rhodes, Marshall and Mitchell scholarships, which provide for graduate study in Great Britain, Ireland or Northern Ireland.

Samuel Walton Atherton, a senior from Overland Park majoring in history, is competing for a Mitchell scholarship.

Earl Holmes Brooks, a senior from Topeka majoring in American studies and music, is competing for Rhodes and Marshall scholarships.

Amanda M. Shriwise, a senior from Overland Park majoring in dance and economics, is competing for a Marshall scholarship.

Brenna Mae Thompson Daldorph, a senior from Lawrence in news journalism and French, is competing for Rhodes and Marshall scholarships.

Thirty-two Rhodes scholarships are awarded annually among 16 U.S. districts; up to 40 Marshall scholarships are awarded in eight U.S. regions; and 12 Mitchell scholarships are awarded throughout the United States.

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

Rhodes competitions take place Nov. 20 and 21. 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 immediately following the Nov. 21 interviews by the Rhodes Foundation. Separate state interviews are no longer conducted.

Marshall scholarship winners will be selected following regional interviews for finalists Nov. 9 and 16. If selected as finalists, KU nominees 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. Winners are asked to accept or decline the offer within 12 days.

The George J. Mitchell Scholars Program selects and announces its winners Nov. 25. The program will select semifinalists for interviews during the week of Oct. 25, and the finalists will be interviewed Nov. 20 and 21.

KU students are nominated by faculty and staff. Final nominees are selected through University Honors Program faculty and staff.

DOUGLAS COUNTY
From Lawrence 66046

Brenna Mae Thompson Daldorph

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Brenna Mae Thompson Daldorph plans to become a journalist covering migration and transnationalism. As a journalist, she hopes to “break down barriers between migrants and refugees and their host communities.” She notes that volunteering with No Mas Muertes/No More Deaths, a humanitarian organization providing aid to Mexican migrants in the Sonora Desert, confirmed a childhood interest in migrant stories (her father is from Britain and her stepfather from Reunion Island). The stories she heard following her second volunteer experience with No More Deaths through KU’s Alternative Breaks program inspired an essay that won KU’s James Whitcomb essay contest last spring. She also gave campus lectures on No More Deaths and immigration policy and organized an exhibit of photographs from the border for KU’s Spencer Museum of Art. This past summer, Daldorph interned with Chicago-based magazine StreetWise and participated in the Chicago Center for Urban Life’s six-week seminar. Her cover stories were picked up by an international news agency. She received an Undergraduate Research Award and a J. Michael Young Award to travel to Houston and Galveston and interview students following Hurricane Ike. Her fieldwork not only led to a series of campus newspaper stories but also to a documentary film project. Daldorph entered KU as a Chancellors Club Scholar, an honor given to top freshmen. She has taught English as a second language in France and worked as a Hall Center for the Humanities Scholar at KU. With a Rhodes scholarship, Daldorph would like to study at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society at Oxford University. Or, with a Marshall scholarship, she could enter a two-year program working first on a master’s degree in media, communications and development at the London School of Economics and then on a master’s degree in migration studies at the University of Sussex. She is the daughter of Brian Daldorph and Sandra Thompson Issa and is a graduate of Lawrence High School.

JOHNSON COUNTY
From Overland Park 66204

Samuel Walton Atherton

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Samuel Walton Atherton plans a career in civil rights law. His decision to study law was shaped in part by KU law professor Stephen McAllister, who has clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court. McAllister taught a class on the Supreme Court for the University Scholars Program the year Atherton was selected for the mentoring program. As president of Delta Force, a campus organization focused on community service and social activism, Atherton has provided leadership in organizing events to fight sexual and domestic violence. He also regularly volunteers at the Lawrence Community Homeless Shelter and participates in service trips through Lutheran Campus Ministry. Atherton entered KU with a Summerfield Scholarship, a highly competitive four-year scholarship awarded to a select group of freshmen who were top graduates of Kansas high schools. He is a member of Student Senate and Phi Beta Kappa honor society. As a Mitchell nominee, he is seeking a year of graduate study in the School of Politics and International Relations at University College Dublin. He is the son of Tracy and Cecilia Atherton and a Shawnee Mission North High School graduate.

From Overland Park 66212

Amanda M. Shriwise

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Amanda M. Shriwise plans to earn a medical degree and a doctorate in comparative social policy and health care policy. Her long-range goals include serving as a physician and providing leadership in world health policy. Shriwise notes that her career plans have been shaped by her volunteer experiences, especially in Tanzania. On her first summer in Tanzania, Shriwise offered to carry piggyback-style a young woman near her own age too thin and weak to make a 30-minute walk to a hospital. Shriwise recalled her new friend was near death and Shriwise full of life. One question haunted her: “How did I end up on my path instead of my friend’s?” Shriwise returned to KU and with two friends co-founded Wellness and Education for a Better Society. They raised about $15,000 for a pre-nursery school in Tanzania. She made two more trips to Tanzania, most recently to level ground for construction at the school, install sinks, tile bathrooms and add playground equipment. Shriwise was a KU nominee for the 2008 Rhodes and Marshall competitions and for the 2007 Truman scholarship competition. She entered KU with a Watkins-Berger Scholarship, a highly competitive four-year scholarship awarded to a select group of freshmen who were top graduates of Kansas high schools. She is one of 12 students selected for KU’s Honors Research Development Program and has twice received Undergraduate Research Awards in chemistry. She has also received awards for projects in chemistry, economics and dance. She was selected for the University Scholars Program, an academic and mentoring program offered annually for 20 select sophomores. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa honor society. She also co-directs KU’s Center for Community Outreach, which matches student volunteers with community agencies. With a Marshall scholarship, Shriwise hopes to study comparative social policy at Oxford University or comparative public policy and global health at the University of Edinburgh. She is the daughter of Rodney and Susan Shriwise and a graduate of Shawnee Mission South High School.

SHAWNEE COUNTY
From Topeka 66605

Earl Holmes Brooks

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Earl Holmes Brooks plans a career teaching American music and culture at the university level. He is a first-generation college student who attributes a chance encounter with acclaimed jazz musician Wynton Marsalis as his inspiration to attend college. While in Topeka for a concert, Marsalis visited Highland Park High School and stopped to hear a jazz band rehearsal. Brooks was playing saxophone. Marsalis stopped the music with questions about Brooks’ performance. Later, he counseled Brooks not only to learn music but also the history of jazz and its links to African-American culture. At KU, Brooks has conducted two undergraduate research studies related to jazz, one with a research award from the McNair Scholars Program, a federal program to prepare first-generation and underrepresented minority students planning to pursue doctorates (Brooks entered KU as a McNair scholar). Last spring, he was a keynote speaker at the annual Undergraduate Research Symposium. Brooks says he has discovered that jazz studies are inextricably linked to his expanding interest in social movements of civil rights era that shaped popular culture and music. He wants to become a scholar “who uses his work to change how people think about the past so that the current issues we face in society can be better understood.” He regularly gives talks on jazz to inner-city students in KU’s Upward Bound Program and music lessons to students in his Topeka neighborhood. He was selected for the Dean’s Scholars Program, one of only 10 students to be admitted, and is a 2009 Hall Center for the Humanities Scholar. He was vice president of the Black Student Union and is president of Black Men Today, an organization with the goal of educating the university community on the issues facing African-American men. He is a member of three national honor societies including Phi Kappa Phi. With a Marshall scholarship he could pursue a master’s degree in trans-Atlantic studies and cultural inquiry at the University of Birmingham or master’s degrees in American literature and globalization, ethnicity and culture at the University of Sussex in Brighton. With a Rhodes scholarship, he could pursue a graduate degree in English and American studies at Oxford University. He is the son of Earl and Vanessa Brooks and is a Highland Park High School graduate.