Two Princeton University seniors will receive prestigious scholarships for study in the United Kingdom following their graduation.
Brandon Miller, of Mohrsville, Pa., is among 32 American students selected for a Rhodes Scholarship, and Seth Green of Boca Raton, Fla., is one of 40 students from the United States chosen for a Marshall Scholarship.
"We're very pleased and very proud," said Assistant Dean of the College Marcia Cantarella, who chairs the Princeton faculty committees that forward recommendations to the scholarship organizations. "Both of these students are extraordinary. They are really at the top of their game."
Rhodes Scholarships provide funding for two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England. Miller plans to complete an M.Phil. in Chinese studies. A comparative literature major, he also has studied German and Chinese at Princeton. His goal is to earn a Ph.D. and become a university professor. Eventually, he hopes to have a leading role in higher education.
"Brandon is an extraordinarily complex person and a brilliant intellect -- and also wonderfully charming," Cantarella said. "He's very clear and very focused. The purpose of the Rhodes Scholarship is to invest in future leaders. Seeing that investment in him is very easy."
A U.S. Presidential Scholar, Miller has served as his class vice president and treasurer, acted in Theatre Intime and the Princeton Shakespeare Company, and been a journalist for The Daily Princetonian and The Nassau Weekly, student publications. He also has tutored junior high students through Springboard Tutoring and worked as a peer adviser for Butler College. He has been a member of the club tennis team and co-principal oboist in the Princeton University Orchestra.
During the summer, Miller has worked as a research assistant for the London Business School, as an intern at a personnel consulting firm in Frankfurt, Germany, and as a translator for a German office of the Chinese government.
"I'm deeply honored and quite amazed that I was selected," Miller said. "The application and interview process was rigorous and challenging, but really enjoyable at the same time. It helped me to figure out what is important to me, what my opinions are and how these different activities and beliefs come together in a complete whole."
The Marshall Scholarship covers the cost of living and studying at a British university of the recipient's choice for two or three years. Green will enroll in the world's only child-focused master's program in community disability studies in developing countries at the University of London. A politics major at Princeton, he is interested in improving the care of special needs children in the developing world.
"Seth has really demonstrated a profound commitment to working with children with craniofacial anomalies, coming out of his own personal experience," Cantarella said. "He is a national leader in his own right on that front. I think what the Marshall people saw was not only his leadership ability, but how ideally suited the program at the University of London is for him."
Green founded a support group for South Florida children who, like him, were born with a cleft lip and palate. He drafted, enlisted sponsorship for and testified on behalf of successful Florida legislation mandating interdisciplinary health care for children born with such congenital anomalies. He has continued his volunteer work on the national level through involvement in the March of Dimes' National Youth Council.
"I am ecstatic about the opportunity to continue my studies in London. I think the experience will be life changing, both personally and intellectually," Green said. "When I found out I had won the scholarship, I was shocked. Marshall is a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
At Princeton, Green has served as vice president of both the Whig-Cliosophic Society, the University's largest student organization and America's oldest debating society, and the Center for Jewish Life. He also has been an independent work director for the Community-Based Learning Initiative, a volunteer in the Student Volunteers Council and an associate editor and staff writer for the Pacific Asian Review, a student publication.
The recipient of Princeton's President's Award for Academic Achievement, Green has spent his summers as a legislative policy intern for the public-policy think tank Taxpayers for Common Sense, a healthcare analyst for a private investment bank and a teacher in a debate program for high school students.
This year's Rhodes Scholars were selected from 950 applicants endorsed by 327 colleges and universities across the country. Recipients were chosen on the basis of high academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness, respect for others, potential for leadership and physical vigor. The awards were created in 1902 by British philanthropist Cecil Rhodes and this year will go to students from 18 jurisdictions in addition to the U.S.
The Marshall Scholarships were established in 1953 as a British gesture of thanks to the people of the U.S. for the assistance received after World War II under the Marshall Plan. Financed by the British government, the scholarships are awarded to American students who have demonstrated academic excellence and leadership potential.
Contact: Justin Harmon (609) 258-3601