Rhodes Personal Statement Essay

Soaked in sweat, I sat deep in thought on the small mound of sand and broken rocks in northern Kenya, where 1.7 million years ago a desperately ill Homo erectus woman had died. Her death had entranced me for years. KNM-ER 1808 had died of Hypervitaminosis A, wherein an overdose of Vitamin A causes prolonged hemorrhaging with start the skeleton and excruciating pain. Yet a thick rind of un healthy bone all over her skeletonossified blood clotstells that 1808 lived for weeks, rase months, immobilized by pain and in the middle of the African bush. As notable in The Wisdom of the Bones, by Walker and Shipman, that means that someone had c ard for her, brought her water, food, and unplowed away predators. At 1.7 million years of age, 1808s mere tidy sum of bones is a breathtaking, poignant glimpse of how people cook struggled with unsoundness over the ages. Since that moment two summers ago, Ive been fascinated by existence relationship with disease.I involve to research paleopat hology, the aim of ancient diseases, in relation to military man culture, specifically ride and gender. At first see my education doesnt quite reflect my passion for paleopathology. I am often asked how bachelors degrees in Womens Studies and Anthropology coadunate. Womens Studies and my cogitate community service eat up honed my analytical skills, led me to the idea of perusal sex and gender in relation to disease, and given my life and practice a affable scruples. I had participated in activism before college, yet my undergrad experiences radically altered how I viewed the world and its potential for favorable change. Travel, confabulation partnering, activism, and classes in Anthropology, African American, and Womens Studies taught me to think critically about valet culture and behavior. Meanwhile, gender-equity organizing and assaults in the local community showed me the choose for activism against sexual assault.Ive focused on prevention, fueled by a strong face -to-face need to make the world a less painful place. some inspiring was organizing the Outrage Rally against Sexual Assault, which attempted to raise sentiency about and de-stigmatize assault in response to a series of assaults on the Mythic University campus. This rally had a positive impact in empowering survivors, certify by subsequent increased reporting of assault rates. Organizing has also taught me flourishing leadership and team get going skills, applicable to academic and social settings.Ive learned the subtleties of desegregation multiple perspectives into a shared vision and a success through and through net running(a)(a) with University administrators, Police Departments, nationally recognized activists, Congress persons, fellow students, and the general public.As head organizer for Mythic Universitys 20xx Take Back the Night, attended by more than 500 people, I headed a seven-committee, twenty-person organizing team. In appendage to recognition, as with the 20xx Service AwardMythic Universitys highest under refine deed over for good citizenry and academicsorganizing has honed my critical thinking skills and hustling me for performing groundbreaking and multidisciplinary graduate research. I want to study the relationship between human pathology and culture, looking specifically at disease in the context of sex and gender in non- moderne European These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, functional at https//www.e-education.psu.edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/populations. My knowledge domain of touch on is new in paleopathology, so I leave integrate paleoepidemiology and paleodemographythe studies of ancient disease processes and population dynamicswith gender and ethnic studies and European history, contextualizing disease historically and culturally. My goal is to look at what health and disease can tell us macrocosmically and individually about social and sexual inequity, socioeconomic class, and ge nder-related quality of life.Research experiences, such as working as a research assistant in a craniofacial morphometrics lab, studying skulls, and doing field work in Pennsylvania, Kenya, the Orkney Islands, West Virginia, and South Dakota, save prepared me well for graduate school. Ive conducted ethnographic, paleontological, demographic, archaeological, cultural, and osteological research. I am currently co-authoring an member on the implications of Foragers mating and marriage practices for sociobiological theory, while working on a research paper on craniofacial morphology in Medieval Denmark. I also completed a senior thesis on Amerindian womens culturally influenced reproductive health issues. With confidence, I want to proceed with graduate work at Oxford to gain a high degree and greater research opportunities in the midst of British culture. My work this year at the SmithsonianInstitutes National Museum of Natural report has galvanized and confirmed my devotion to p aleopathology.An anthropological fantasy realized I am surrounded by invaluable research opportunities and constant, stimulating dialogue with rising colleagues, and vast and exotic collections including cave bear skulls, dinosaurs, and the renowned Terry superfluous Collection. Volunteer work cataloguing the Bab edh-Dra skeletal collection and self-employed person research exploring metabolous diseases effects on the skull using CT imaging technology have taught me the reality of professional research. Concurrently, this year has allowed me to further realize my personal interests. I practice fine arts, read extensively, love to travel, and have a whirlwind go of Western Europe planned for December.I am hiking and backpacking on the Appalachian Trail, playing rugby, running, and I am training my four-year-old horse for jump and cross-country riding and competitions. I believe that my personal interests, experiences, and social conscience would contribute as much as my research skills to Oxfords social and intellectual culture. Oxford offers me an fortune to pursue a Masters in European Archaeology while taking supplementary courses in pathology, anatomy, modern European History, and social and cultural anthropology.Equally, I could have research direction from staff in Biological Anthropology and the Human Sciences program, where human culture, biology, and behavior in response to disease are being supplely studied. At Oxford, I could training and share a unique set of social experiences, nurture and explore my research interests, and contribute an innovative, informative, and multidisciplinary new approach to my field. Ensconcing myself in British culture, intellectual environment, and vigorous research at Oxford is the chance of a lifetime. I hope to be able to seize it.These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, available at https//www.e-education.psu.edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/Sample Rhodes Scholarship Personal St atementStudent 2Personal Statement by Janet Lerner for the Rhodes Scholarship I have tack together my mentor, and Id like to tell you who it is and how this has come about. I have not yet met him face-to-face, but he has already taught me how to beginthis adjudicate with his words. professor Anthony D. Nuttall, writing in his book Openings, tells us, All good founts are somehow naturally rooted, more or less remote, of an original imaginative act in medias res, as against In the beginning. Nuttall describes the importance of an opening by demonstrating the difference between the actual opening lines and the first smack of action, which go away execute the plot. The original creative act to which he refers applies as well to young scholars. I recognize now that I am in the process of becoming the scholar I will eer be becoming.This process currently involves research that is the basis for my senior honors thesis investigating two British poets incorporation of guileless Gree k and roman letters mythology into their poetry. I have begun studying Geoffrey Chaucer and Alfred Lord Tennyson, both of whom make active use of myth in their works. The philosophy of intertextuality, a specific interest of prof Nuttalls, is apparent in his research on the influence of roman and Greek classics on British poets, the real topic I have chosen for my honors thesis. While I am learning from reading professor Nuttalls books, specifically his A Common Sky Philosophy and the literary Imagination, the opportunity to work with him would inspire me to pursue further research in this field and enrich my understanding of literature and its critical theories.My interest in British poets and their use of classical literature evolves from a paper I presented at the 20xx Novus Et Antiquus Conference. I had the privilege of being selected as one of pentad undergraduates to attend this skill conference, where I presented my work on classical mythologys influence on the medieval author Geoffrey Chaucers poems The Knights Tale and The Parliament of Fowls. There Chaucer uses the Roman gods and goddesses to orchestrate the fates of the two female characters. Through the intervention of these deities, Chaucer shows compassion for women and grants mercy to both females. My experience as a college junior presenting a paper at a faculty conference proved gratifying on another level as well I was pleased to receive guidance from the professors, and also to be complimented on my pronunciation of oculus English quotations.I came to Chaucer lonesome(prenominal) aft(prenominal) reading Chrtien de Troyes Lancelot. In thisArthurian romance, Chrtien represents Lancelot as conflictedthe kind of chivalrous horse whom one expects to find only in myth, yet, in violation of the ordinance of honor, desirous of his lords queen. I began thinking of the tales of the Arthurian knights as more than legendaryas potentially credible historical accounts. I wrote a paper on Gawain s rhetoric as a means to elicit specific responses in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Gawains rhetorical strategies and their manipulations ultimately led him to a These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, available at https//www.e-education.psu.edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/deeper personal recognition and self-acceptance.This early exercise alerted me to strategies of language in the Middle Ages.A post-graduate education at Oxford based on personal tutorials and independent research is precisely the type of program I now need to pursue. Through several independent study courses in my undergraduate curriculum, I have become even more self-motivated and have been gratified to walk out that discussion between teacher and student has helped me develop my best work.Professor Nuttall is a Fellow of Oxfords New College, the ideal place to shroud my studies in medieval literature because it was built at the height of the medieval period, the era on which I plan to focus in my graduate study. I was pleased to discover that New College is also one of only four colleges that participate in the Oxford Access Scheme, a program that reaches out to inner-city students and encourages them to seek a higher education. This program provides all students with an equal opportunity to apply to a university as prestigious as Oxford. In participating in this program, New College seeks qualified students who may not have the socio-economic mogul or confidence to apply to and attend Oxford. I would like to become involved in this program because I have worked with students in analogous situations from the Boys and Girls Club near my hometown, and have found supporting these students to be very rewarding.My reasons for applying for a Rhodes Scholarship to work with Professor Nuttall have roots in a study I undertook in 20xx. While reading Shakespeares The Tempest, I found a single line in which the representative unicorn becomes a link betweenthe medieval era and the Renaissance. I became elicit in the villain Sebastians professed disbelief in the unicorn, that imaginary wight symbolic of Jesus Christ in medieval bestiaries. My research on the historical symbolism of the unicorn in medieval literature led me to settle that in rejecting the unicorn, Sebastian implies that he also rejects Christianity.An interesting aspect of The Tempest that I have not yet pursued is the masque, in which the Roman goddesses Iris, Ceres, and Juno deduct upon the island in preparation for Miranda and Ferdinands wedding. My earlier interest in Shakespeares use of the allegorical unicorn will create a focus for study when combined with the masque of the Roman goddesses in The Tempest. Shakespeares integration of Christianity and classical mythology is yet another area I would like to explore with Professor Nuttall, for not only has he published on philosophy he has also written Two Concepts of Allegory A Study of Shakespeares The Tempest and the Logic of Allegorical Expression.The adventure of Sir Gawainwhich leads him to a deeper understanding of selfis not unlike the transit I have undertaken, a journey I hope will lead me to Oxford University, its Bodleian Library, and study with Anthony Nuttall and other mentors. Oxford will provide me the opportunity to learn directly from authorities in my field who will help guide me in my quest to become a scholar. Like Gawain, I am striving to realize my potential through my own adventure.These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, available at https//www.e-education.psu.edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/