Seven Harvard Students Named Rhodes Scholars

Seven Harvard students, including two Leverett House roommates, won 1992 American Rhodes Scholarships to study at Oxford University in England, selection committee members announced this weekend.

The seven undergraduates are Noah R. Feldman '92, Eric S. Gregory '92, Jessica Heineman-Pieper '92, Derek Y. Kunimoto '92, Richard A. Primus '92, Brian M. Reed '92 and Peter Dimitri Tymoczko '92.

The Harvard scholars were among 32 national winners, four from each of eight districts, chosen from an applicant pool of more than 1000 students. Harvard had the most winners of any University, followed by Yale, Princeton and Georgetown, with four, three and three winners respectively.

Leverett House stole the show, housing three of the Rhodes scholars.

"It must be something in the food," said Gregory, a government concentrator in Leverett who won a Rhodes.

The inherent drama of the selection process was amplified in the Great Lakes district's final selec- tion, where four of the final 12 contenders were Harvard students and two were Leverett roommates.

According to Reed, the final Great Lakes selection was "virtually sadistic. The atmosphere was so tense it was ridiculous."

When the announcement was made, Reed said, all three Harvard winners "threw our arms around each other in a circle, and shouted and danced and sang."

After calling everybody they knew, Reed and his roommate Primus flew back to Harvard, where they drank champagne and partied with more than 30 people who were already waiting in their room Saturday night.

A Diverse Bunch

The interests and future plans among the Harvard winners were diverse.

Heineman-Pieper, one of nine female winners of this year's scholarships and the only woman chosen from Harvard, plays the cello as an extracurricular activity and hopes to become a professor of academic and clinical psychology in the future.

At Oxford, she plans to get a degree in P.P.P.--Psychology, Philosophy and Physiology--a program unique to England.

Gregory, who was selected from the mid-Atlantic district, plans to get an M-Phil in Philosophic Theology. He also looks forward to travelling in Europe and studying with Oxford professors.

"I was humbled by the people I met," he said. "People there were NCAA athletes of the year and here I am a government concentrator...I'll finally be able to make a varsity basketball team."

Kunimoto, a black belt in karate who has taught the art of self-defense and founded karate clubs here and at Wesleyan University, is a Kirkland House biology major.

He plays jazz saxophone and plans to study biochemistry at Oxford, the Associated Press reported.

Candidates are selected for their "scholastic ability", "moral force of character," and "physical vigor," according to fellowship information. The scholarship award, worth more than $40,000, covers Oxford tuition for two years, as well as living expenses.

Feldman, Kunimoto and Tymoczko could not be reached for comment yesterday