Updated  Monday, December 6, 2004
Mazyck Wins Rhodes Scholarship
HGSE Student Shares Nail-Biting Details of National Competition
By Jen Tutak
APPIAN STAFF WRITER

While the majority of students at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) finished mid-term projects before Thanksgiving, Ed.M. candidate Rachel Mazyck was having a very different weekend in North Carolina, interviewing for and ultimately becoming a 2005 Rhodes Scholar. 

Mazyck had initially flirted with thoughts of applying for the Rhodes while she was a freshman at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. 

But majoring in English and devoted to education, she was soon distracted from the scholarship and graduated three years later, in 2002, at the age of 19.  The decision to finish early was an obvious one for Mazyck: having entered with a number of Advanced Placement credits from high school, she was anxious to start garnering field experience.  Though primarily interested in policy, it was important to her to first have exposure working directly in the classroom.

For the next two years, Mazyck taught fourth grade in the Mississippi Delta through Teach for America, and that is where the Rhodes Scholarship came back to find her last April.  During an unlikely morning car ride to school, Mazyck answered a telephone call from her Teach for America Program Director, who promptly asked her if she had ever considered applying for the Rhodes. 

Very surprised, Mazyck said she nearly drove off the road. 

“I was incredibly shocked when he asked me,” she explained, “But I gave it some consideration and decided it was something I was really wanted to do.”

Thus began a Herculean application process.  The majority of the 32 Rhodes Scholars picked each year are seniors in college; however, graduates may apply up to age 24.  Though the extensive process of procuring recommendations (between five and eight are required; four must be from professors) and participating in practice interviews makes it more convenient for candidates who are still in college, Mazyck, who is currently 22, was still eligible to apply.

Mazyck knew at that point she would be matriculating to the Education Policy and Management (EDM) program at HGSE in September, so she used the summer months to prepare her application and return to UNC to secure an endorsement for her candidacy. 

UNC nominated Mazyck to the state of North Carolina (applicants compete for the Rhodes geographically, from the state where they were born, the state where they attended college from, or the state where their college was located), and Mazyck was selected as one of 11 candidates for a semi-final interview on November 18 and 19 at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina.  

During the two-day process, she attended a reception with the other candidates and state Rhodes committee members—during which the applicants were appraised on their social interaction skills—followed by a 25-minute interview the next morning.  

Mazyck found the reception to be more laid-back and friendly than she expected; the interview was more formal, and she was to be drilled on such topics as her thesis, the privatization of education, use of vouchers, and the Kansas City School Funding Case. 

Mazyck left the interview feeling relieved and pleased that she had done her best. “Mentally I tell myself these interviews are just like talking to the parents of my friends,” she reflected, “that is how I psych myself up and avoid stressing out.”

Though the committee anticipated their decision by 4 p.m., Mazyck and the other candidates had to wait in a small room, making nervous small talk, until 5:45 p.m. when the two finalists were announced.  Because Mazyck made the cut, along with a woman whom she had befriended from Wake Forest University, she flew straight to Washington, D.C. that night for the final district interviews.  Fortunately Mazyck, had packed extra clothes—just in case—and being from the area, interviewing in D.C. was a chance to go home for a few days. 

Again, the two-day district interviews began with a candidate and judges reception at the Washington bureau office of The New York Times, followed by a twenty-five minute interview Saturday morning.  The first interviewee at 8:30, Mazyck fielded questions about No Child Left Behind, her ultimate goals, why she thought a liberal arts education was important, and even if she felt she had missed out on anything graduating from college so young.  By 4:45 p.m., she again found herself before the committee, ready to announce which four candidates in the room were about to have their lives changed.

Mazyck vividly recalled her heart pounding at that point, but also relaxing when the committee members began addressing the finalists.  The first name called was none other than Rebecca Cook, Mazyck’s new friend from Wake Forest, and Mazyck was so excited for Cook that she almost missed hearing her name called next.  She described her initial reaction as stunned, which was quickly followed by paperwork to fill out before she and Cook relegated themselves to Cook’s hotel room to make phone calls on opposite sides of room.  “My cell phone battery definitely ran out that night,” said Mazyck.

“Rachel called home and asked that we both listen to the call at the same time,” said Mazyck’s parents Donna and Reggie in an e-mail message.  “We feel elated that Rachel has an opportunity to broaden her education by attending Oxford.  Rachel has a strong sense of purpose and destiny.  We believe this honor is one of the steps toward her destiny.”  They plan to visit her at Oxford. 

Almost surreally, Mazyck found herself back at HGSE on Sunday, a new Rhodes Scholar, after leaving the previous Tuesday to interview.  Despite the excitement of the scholarship, she found herself steeped in make-up work.  “Missing class here is no joke,” said Mazyck, “though professors were wonderful about letting me make up work and giving me extensions in some cases.” 

Though Mazyck still technically has to apply and be accepted to Oxford, she plans to obtain a Ph.D. in education there, with a focus on studying the achievement gap in the United Kingdom. “I thought that it would be interesting to get beyond a solely U. S. perspective and see how the U.K. is addressing the same issue in their system, and to see if the policies that they are enacting have any bearing on what we are doing in America,” Mazyck said.

On campus, Mazyck is involved with HGSE’s Bible study group, and she loves music and cooking.  She can be heard playing the Cronkite piano, and her culinary specialties including lasagna and peach crisp.  

Thinking ahead to the future, Mazyck shared, “I would love to come back to the D.C. area and do federal work in Department of Education or at a nonprofit advocacy group that focuses on the achievement gap.  My goal is to see that all students who go to public schools can get an excellent education, not just those who attend the private schools.”  

Jen Tutak is a staff writer for The Appian.