University Communications
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322

Release date: Dec. 6, 1999
Contact: Deb Hammacher, Assistant Director, 404-727-0644, or dhammac@emory.edu

EMORY STUDENT SELECTED AS RHODES SCHOLAR

Emory senior Danielle Sered is one of 32 American college or university students selected as Rhodes Scholars, the Rhodes Scholarship Trust announced yesterday. Sered is the 16th Emory student to be selected for the scholarship that provides for two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England. Sered was selected from 935 applicants endorsed by 323 colleges and universities nationwide.

"After spending a whole day with all the candidates and learning of all the amazing and inspiring work they are doing, it is a very humbling experience to have been chosen," says Sered. "It is invigorating to know that there are so many students doing work that will make a difference."

Sered, who is majoring in English with a minor in French, will pursue her master's degree in English at Oxford, or the M.Phil as it is known in England. Her concentration is in contemporary Irish literature with particular interest in Irish female poets. Research for her senior honors thesis lead her on a nine-week research trip to Ireland last summer to interview a dozen of those poets. Sered has published many essays and poems in national literary and collegiate magazines; her critical essay on the work of Irish poet Medbh McGuckian won a national Norton Scholars Prize from W.W. Norton Company and the Modern Language Association. She also is the recipient of a Beinecke Brothers Memorial Scholarship, a national scholarship awarding $32,000 for graduate study. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

In addition to her academic work, Sered is active in the Emory community in many ways. Some of her accomplishments include founding ArtsReach, a program that teaches conflict resolution, prejudice reduction, and AIDS/sex education through the arts in Atlanta city schools and juvenile detention centers; founder of Emory Women's Alliance, a network of mentors and support for female Emory faculty, staff and students; and developed the classroom component for EN-ACTE Theater Action Troupe, a campus theater company performing theater with a message in local schools.

Sered is the second female Emory student to be named a Rhodes Scholar, but the first female undergraduate. The first was Heather A. Warren, a graduate student in Emory's Candler School of Theology who was selected in 1981. Emory's most recent Rhodes Scholar until now was Stanley J. Panikowski III, a 1992 Rhodes Scholar.

The Rhodes Scholarship, established in 1902 by the will of British philanthropist and colonial pioneer Cecil Rhodes, is the oldest international study award available to American students. Scholars are chosen based on criteria set down by Rhodes: high academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness, respect for others, potential for leadership, and physical vigor. Since 1976 women have been eligible to apply, and 291 have since won the prestigious award. The scholarship pays all college and university fees and provides a stipend to cover expenses while in residence in Oxford as well as during vacations. The total value averages approximately $25,000 per year depending on the degree being pursued.

Sered is a native of Evanston, Ill. Her mother and stepfather are Joan and Emmett Smith, and her father is Meir Sered, all residents of Chicago (60645).

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