November 13, 2009: News & Views

David Gatz ’10

Photo by Paul Molitor

Rhodes Scholar Semifinalist
David Gatz ’10 to compete for international honor

Throughout Ohio Wesleyan University’s illustrious history—which includes educating two Nobel Prize winners, baseball legend Branch Rickey, and “Power of Positive Thinking” author Norman Vincent Peale—the University also has seen four of its own selected as prestigious Rhodes Scholars.

On November 21, a fifth OWU student may join that elite group when he competes to become a 2009 Rhodes Scholar.

David Gatz ’10, a double major in biochemistry and pre-professional medicine, has been selected as one of 12 Rhodes Scholar semifinalists from a district that includes Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. On November 21, Gatz and the other semifinalists will meet with the selection committee in Indianapolis. Following 30-minute interviews, two of the students will be named Rhodes Scholars, earning two-year graduate-study fellowships at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

Asked about being named a semifinalist, Gatz responded with just two words: “Quite surprising.”

Then, in typical fashion, the Delaware, Ohio, native preceded to point to the hard work of others in helping him reach this latest achievement. In this case, he took special care to thank OWU music professor Tim Roden, Ph.D., the University’s director of post-graduate fellowships.

“Dr. Roden has been on me since the beginning of my junior year,” Gatz says, explaining that he participated in Roden’s seminar-style workshop on fellowships throughout his junior year. “[Dr. Roden] guided me through the whole process.”

The application process included writing an essay of under 1,000 words, as well as collecting eight letters of recommendation and an institutional letter of endorsement.

Founded in 1902, the Rhodes Scholarships are the world’s oldest international fellowships, bringing together students from 19 countries to study at Oxford. Students are selected based on four criteria:

• Literary and scholastic attainments.
• Energy to use one’s talents to the full, as exemplified by fondness for and success in sports.
• Truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness, and fellowship.
• Moral force of character and instincts to lead, and to take an interest in one’s fellow beings.

In his essay, Gatz says, he tried to explain how he met the criteria and how he would use the Oxford experience “for the betterment of the world.”

“I’m amazed how much my awareness of the world has grown over these last three years,” Gatz wrote, noting especially his collaboration with fellow student Usman Javaid ’10 of Lahore, Pakistan, to attempt a relay swim of the English Channel to demonstrate the power of international cooperation and friendship.

The two Ohio Wesleyan swim team members spent months preparing for the swim and raising funds to support the relief efforts of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières. When Javaid was denied a visa to enter the United Kingdom, Gatz attempted an unsuccessful solo swim and, mere days later, completed a relay swim with an international team he met in England.

“I’ve gone from municipal park pools to the English Channel, from concern about playground bullies to the Tehrik e Taliban,” Gatz wrote. “At Oxford, and amongst Rhodes colleagues, I could continue to grow through multicultural collaboration. Perhaps it would be with an Indian economist, a Kenyan anthropologist, or an Australian philosopher. Assumptions fall, horizons expand, new views inspire.”

If chosen, Gatz will follow in the footsteps of such noted Americans as former U.S. President Bill Clinton, former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court David H. Souter, and former Ohio Gov. Richard F. Celeste.

Gatz also would join four Ohio Wesleyan students (see related story) in achieving the prestigious honor: Edwin Russell Lloyd, Class of 1905; Edmund Earl Lincoln, Class of 1909; Robert Aura Smith, Class of 1920; and Bill McCulloh, Class of 1953.

OWU President Rock Jones. Ph.D., says he was delighted to sign Gatz’s letter of endorsement.

“David Gatz does more than meet the Rhodes Scholar criteria, he exemplifies them,” Jones says. “David is an outstanding scholar, who spent the summer completing an internship at the Scripps Research Institute in California. He is an outstanding athlete, twice named an All-America swimmer. In addition, David is dedicated to service and peace. He is vitally interested in children’s welfare and hopes to prepare for a career in pediatric medicine, a field that provides a way for him to combine his passion for science with his desire to alleviate children’s suffering.”

Good luck, David, and congratulations from everyone at Ohio Wesleyan!

– Cole Hatcher