ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 9, 1996 TAG: 9612090122
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
SOURCE: Associated Press
32 AMERICANS were selected from a field of 990 applicants for the scholarships to study at Oxford University in England.
Three Virginia students, including a College of William and Mary student who worked on an AIDS education project in Kenya, plays classical guitar and has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, were among the 32 Americans named to the 1997 class of Rhodes Scholars.
Hans Christian Ackerman, a chemistry and biology student from Newport News, spent his childhood in Zaire. His main academic interests lie in pathology and the study and treatment of tropical diseases, especially malaria.
At Oxford University, Ackerman intends to pursue a doctor of philosophy degree with a special emphasis on epidemiology.
Hamed Rahim Wardak of Arlington, a government major at Georgetown University who returned to his native Afghanistan to distribute medical supplies and food in the civil war, also will be a Rhodes Scholar.
``I see myself as bridging the political theory with institution building,'' Wardak said. ``Not just sitting in an ivory tower and contemplating issues, but trying to resolve how we can mediate difficult issues and peacefully end conflict.''
Charlotte A. Opal of Falls Church, a student at Wake Forest University, also was named.
Rhodes scholarships were established at the turn of the century by the estate of Cecil Rhodes, a British philanthropist and colonialist. Winners receive scholarships to Oxford University in England.
The winners were announced Saturday by the Rhodes Scholarship Trust at Pomona College in Claremont, east of Los Angeles.
Other winners included:
* Annette Salmeen, a chemistry major at the University of California at Los Angeles who won a gold medal in swimming at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
* Adam K. Ake, a cadet at the United States Military Academy who won a Harry S. Truman Scholarship for public service, and is ranked first in his class with a 4.1 grade point average.
* Tess Thompson majors in English and literature at Pennsylvania State University. She has won several writing awards for both fiction and poetry, including Seventeen magazine's national fiction contest in 1995.
An organizer of the ``Take Back the Night'' women against violence rally, Thompson plans to be a writer and teacher. She'll work toward a Bachelor of Arts degree in English language and literature at Oxford.
This year's American scholars were chosen from a group of 990 applicants from 323 colleges and universities in the United States.
Harvard University had the most winners, with five Rhodes Scholars, Georgetown University was second with three, and Cornell and Yale each had two.
Criteria for Rhodes Scholarships include high academic achievement, integrity, leadership and athletic prowess.
U.S. candidates must be unmarried citizens of the United States between the ages of 18 and 24. Candidates normally become eligible during their senior undergraduate year of college because they must have received a bachelor's degree before entering Oxford. But graduates and graduate students may also apply.
The competition was first opened to women in 1976.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 linesby CNB