{"id":973,"date":"2008-11-20T09:59:37","date_gmt":"2008-11-20T15:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ezing.me\/transfer\/?p=973"},"modified":"2014-09-23T08:41:23","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T13:41:23","slug":"shadwhiterhodes01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/shadwhiterhodes01\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandersville Native Named Finalist For Coveted Rhodes Scholarship"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nClick image to enlarge
\n<\/span>\"shadwhite03.jpg\"<\/a> <\/p>\n
\nShad White plays with children in an orphanage in the El Salvador capital of San Salvador in the summer of 2006. White, a May graduate of the University of Mississippi, is a finalist for a coveted Rhodes Scholarship. Courtesy photo.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

OXFORD,
\nMiss – Shadrack “Shad” Tucker White has been doing a lot of practice
\ninterviews lately, but they’re not for a job. He already has one of
\nthose.<\/p>\n

When this University of Mississippi honors graduate sits for
\nthe real interview Saturday in Kansas City, it is for an academic
\ndistinction shared by some of the world’s great leaders and
\nintellectuals of the past century.<\/p>\n

White is a finalist for a
\nRhodes Scholarship, an all-expense-paid opportunity to study for two
\nyears at Oxford University in England, one of the world’s oldest
\nuniversities. The scholarship is the most coveted academic award for
\nAmerican undergraduates.<\/p>\n

White has the academic muscle, concern
\nfor others and character that the scholarship program was designed to
\nattract. Since graduating summa cum laude from UM in May, he has been
\nin Washington, D.C., working to improve early childhood education in
\nboth Mississippi and the rest of the nation.<\/p>\n

White’s senior
\nhonors thesis – an examination of finance and education in Mississippi
\nschools that called for more accountability on funding issues – landed
\nhim a job as an analyst with the U.S. Department of Education, which
\nthen led to a fellowship with Pre-K Now, a nonprofit research and
\nadvocacy group.<\/p>\n


“My days are filled with analyzing new research that comes out or helping policy analysts,” he said. “I split my time between good research and good advocacy.”<\/p>\n

A Sandersville native, White graduated as a fellow of UM’s Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College with a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science. Before doing so, he spent a life-changing summer working at an impoverished orphanage in San Salvador, El Salvador.<\/p>\n

He also organized students to help with voter-registration drives in the Mississippi Delta, provided edgy political commentary in the campus newspaper and helped with various political campaigns, including that of State Auditor Stacy Pickering.<\/p>\n

While in the student senate, he persuaded the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning to establish a task force to make textbooks more affordable for students. He also chaired the campus College Republicans and was executive director of the Mississippi Federation of College Republicans.<\/p>\n

At Ole Miss, White was named a Taylor Medalist, inducted into Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa, and named a Truman Scholar. The latter, who receive up to $30,000 for graduate school, are recognized as future “change agents” with the potential to improve how public entities serve the public good.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/embed><\/object>\n<\/div>\n
\nWatch video of Shad White.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


\n“The Truman opened a lot of doors,” White said. “Regardless, being named a Rhodes finalist is one of those things you have to work for. The interview itself is fairly similar (to the Truman); they are both intended to throw you off your game.”<\/p>\n

If selected for the Rhodes Scholarship, White plans to finish his work in D.C., then join the postgraduate Enfield program in comparative social policy at Oxford University, where he would study social programs in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on his time at Ole Miss, White says one important lesson he learned was how to deal with disappointment.<\/p>\n

“I think for every success I had, there were probably three failures,” he said.<\/p>\n

For example, White ran for president of the Associated Student Body. He lost the election, but his campaign platform – racial reconciliation on campus – helped him land an internship at UM’s William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, where he collected data for the organization’s civil rights work. Some of this research helped with his senior thesis.<\/p>\n

“He was a delight to work with,” said Susan Glisson, the institute’s executive director. “He’s intelligent, diligent and resourceful.”<\/p>\n

In his endorsement of White for the Rhodes, honors college Dean Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez described him as having “perhaps the sharpest intellect in his class and, without a doubt, the most effective leader we had seen in years.”<\/p>\n

Those who have worked with him tend to echo that message, including UM Chancellor Robert Khayat, who also wrote a letter recommending White.<\/p>\n

Though he was born and raised in Mississippi, White chose a road to Ole Miss that was not as straight as many students take. In 2004, he was offered a spot in the freshman class of his dream school, Georgetown University. The papers were signed and mailed. However, recognizing White’s potential as a leader, a recruiter from the UM honors college convinced him that the university’s honors program was the perfect place for him and offered him a full ride. This scholarship provided enough money for him to send some back home to his family.<\/p>\n

“We are just really proud of him,” said his father, Charles White. “He would not be here, I believe, without Ole Miss. We owe a great gratitude, and (the university) has really opened and challenged his mind.”<\/p>\n

UM has produced 24 Rhodes Scholars to date. The most recent was Calvin Thigpen, who studied at Oxford in 1999. According to honors college Associate Dean Debra Young, the university’s last Rhodes finalist in 2001.<\/p>\n

The scholarships were started after the death of Cecil Rhodes in 1902 and are designed to bring accomplished students from around the world to the University of Oxford. The first American scholars were elected in 1904, according to the scholarship’s Web site<\/a> .<\/p>\n

Each year regional committees select 32 American Rhodes Scholars from among nominees in each of the 50 states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click image to enlarge Shad White plays with children in an orphanage in the El Salvador capital of San Salvador in the summer of 2006. White, a May graduate of the University of Mississippi, is a finalist for a coveted Rhodes Scholarship. Courtesy photo. OXFORD, Miss – Shadrack “Shad” Tucker White has been doing aRead the story …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[222],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nSandersville Native Named Finalist For Coveted Rhodes Scholarship - Ole Miss News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/shadwhiterhodes01\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sandersville Native Named Finalist For Coveted Rhodes Scholarship - Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Click image to enlarge Shad White plays with children in an orphanage in the El Salvador capital of San Salvador in the summer of 2006. 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