Scott Arcenas, a member of Princeton's class of 2009, has been awarded a 2010 Gates Cambridge Scholarship, which gives outstanding students from outside the United Kingdom an opportunity to pursue postgraduate study at the University of Cambridge.
Arcenas, a native of Casper, Wyo., graduated summa cum laude with an A.B. in classics at Princeton. He was awarded the Department of Classics' Atkins Prize for best senior thesis for "The Democratic Accident? Cleisthenes, Ephialtes and Their 'Democratic' Programs of Reform."
Arcenas will study for an M.Phil. in classics at Cambridge. He then plans to return to the United States to obtain a Ph.D. and pursue a career as a university professor. To gain teaching experience prior to attending graduate school, Arcenas is spending this year as a Latin teacher at Sturgis Charter Public School in Hyannis, Mass., and as a sailing instructor at Camp Nashoba North in Raymond, Maine.
Arcenas is one of 29 students from U.S. colleges and universities to be named 2010 Gates Cambridge Scholars. Another 50 scholarships will be awarded to students from around the world later this spring.
Arcenas is the 23rd Princeton student to be named a Gates Cambridge Scholar since the awards were established in 2001 through a $210 million donation to the University of Cambridge from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Scholars are selected on the basis of intellectual ability, leadership potential and desire to improve the lives of others.
