Harvard Thespian Snags 7th Rhodes

While droves of Harvard students were home awkwardly mingling with relatives drowsy from tryptophan-induced comas last Thanksgiving weekend, Daniel J. Wilner ’07 of Quebec was named a Rhodes Scholar—upping the number of Harvard’s 2007 Rhodes Scholars to seven.

The Rhodes Scholarship, created from the endowment of Cecil J. Rhodes, a British philanthropist who earned much of his fortune through colonial activities in Africa, provides Scholars with funding for two to three years of study at Oxford University in England.

According to Wilner, a philosophy concentrator, the secret to his success was focusing on his true passion: theater.

Wilner starred in a January 2005 Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club production of Hamlet, directed and acted in a number of Samuel Beckett’s plays at the Loeb, and worked in Paris with the Continent II theatre company.

“I just always did things that I really wanted to do and was passionate about doing,” Wilner said.

Wilner said he thinks of his scholarship not only as the result of his own individual accomplishments but also as something many people have helped him achieve over the years.

After his parents, Wilner cited Expository Writing Preceptor Susanna Ryan and Professor of Philosophy Alison Simmons as key mentors who helped push him to the highest level of scholastic achievement.

About the Rhodes interview process, Wilner said, “What’s important is that you give the impression that you know who you are and what you’re about.”

He credited Harvard’s intellectual climate, in which he said he was constantly forced to articulate his opinions, with helping prepare him for the application process. And as evidenced by Wilner’s success, that preperation paid off.

But Wilner was not always expecting success—and like many other seniors, was still trying to figure out what he wanted to do after graduation.

On what some call the “senior pandemic”—in which soon-to-be-Harvard grads frantically search for what they’ll do beyond the Yard—Wilner said it is important to keep all options open.

“Smart people are the ones who have been open-minded and know that there’s more than one option out there.”