After graduating from the University summa cum laude in 2006, Andrew Shipley still wasn’t exactly sure where his degrees in political science and psychology were going to take him. After completing some international research, his life was a blank slate, waiting before him.
All of that changed Saturday, when Shipley was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, making him the first University student to receive the prestigious scholarship in more than 15 years. The scholarship will provide Shipley with a two, or possibly three-year full ride to the University of Oxford, England, where he plans to pursue a Master of Science in Experimental Psychology.
Shipley started the scholarship application process in spring 2004 when he was nominated by the University. After sweating over the task of completing his academic résumé and personal statement, Shipley sent in his application and went through the interview process, but ultimately didn’t receive the scholarship.
This year, however, Shipley became one of 32 to receive the scholarship. While Shipley said that he was completely shocked by the award, he is extremely excited to be able to interact with such inspiring and hard working people. One run-in with a fellow applicant left him impressed, but also convinced that he wouldn’t make the cut.
“There was this guy I went running with up (in Seattle) from BYU who was an economics and linguistics major. He did his mission in China, knew Mandarin fluently, and his grasp of statistics and econometrics was just astounding; he was like a book,” Shipley said. “I called a friend back (in Eugene) and said ‘I just went jogging with the guy who’s going to beat me.’ It’s inspiring to be around people like that.”
In the past two years, Shipley has been amassing his own body of research in the field of social identities. In 2005, he worked in Ecuador in Shuar villages in the Amazon, comparing the development of the Shuar children with that of children in Eugene. Then, in the fall of 2006, he spent six weeks in Ghana researching the development of cooperation between different ethnic groups.
Since flying back from Africa last weekend to attend the scholarship interview, Shipley said he has been running in many different directions. Although he doesn’t leave for Oxford until October of 2007, he will leave for New Zealand in January to pursue Fulbright Scholarship-funded research on national and ethnic identities.
Until then, Shipley plans on spending Thanksgiving with some of his friends in Eugene. Because his parents are currently living in Italy, Shipley said that this will be the first Thanksgiving when he has to be part of the cooking process.
“We’re going to take a stab at making a turkey,” Shipley said. “I want to be involved in every step of the process so if I ever have any need to do this again, I’ll know what I’m doing, because right now I’m pretty ignorant.”
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