Cover stories
Senior is 25th KU student named Rhodes scholar
Ruth Anne French, a Partridge senior in political science,
has won a prestigious Rhodes scholarship for 2005. The scholarship provides
more than $50,000 for two years of graduate study at Oxford University
in Great Britain.
French is the 25th KU student to be named a Rhodes scholar since 1904.
KU students have received more Rhodes scholarships than at all other
Kansas colleges and universities combined.
Rhodes officials announced their selection of 32 Rhodes scholars for
2005 on Nov. 20 from eight regional competition sites throughout
the United States following interviews with finalists from each region.
Winners were selected from among 904 applicants endorsed by 341 colleges
and
universities.
French is the daughter of Jim and Lisa French, a fifth-generation
farm family in central Kansas. French plans a career as an advocate
for
protecting natural resources. After her graduation in May 2005,
French plans to
study administrative and regulatory law with an emphasis on the
environment.
At KU, French has worked as a research assistant with Donald Worster,
Hall Family Foundation distinguished professor of history, to
create a course on agriculture in world history. She worked with
Sidney
Shapiro, former KU law professor, to research her honors thesis
examining the
effects of the Data Quality Act on the regulatory processes of
the Environmental Protection Agency.
She has worked as an intern for Chief Justice Deanell Reece Tacha of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Pi Sigma Alpha honor
societies.