Tufts senior Casey Beck was selected yesterday out of five student finalists as the recipient of this year's Wendell Phillips Memorial Scholarship based on her ability as a speaker and her devotion to public service.
The Wendell Phillips Memorial Scholarship, which was established in 1896 in honor of Boston abolitionist Wendell Phillips, is a prize awarded annually to one junior or senior from Tufts and one from Harvard. As this year's Tufts winner, Beck will receive a small financial award and will be able to speak at this year's graduation ceremony about a topic of her choice.
The Committee on Student Life selected Beck, as well as seniors Elizabeth Manno, Sarah Newton, Aditya Nochur and Shanti Sattler as finalists from a pool of applicants last semester.
Applicants either nominated themselves or were nominated by others. They were asked to demonstrate their public activism through responses, one written and one oral, to two questions.
The finalists were then asked to give a speech applying a Shakespeare quote to public service.
The quote, which came from "Measure for Measure," was: "Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt."
Yesterday afternoon in the Coolidge Room, the seniors delivered their speeches to peers, parents and the committee, and were scored on their presentation and demonstration of service.
"We were really impressed with all of the speakers," Barbara Grossman, the chair of both the Department of Dance and Drama and the Committee on Student Life, told the Daily. "They were incredibly thoughtful, engaging and impressive. We thought they were terrific."
Beck spoke about her study abroad experience in Mongolia, where she created a documentary film on illegal gold mining. Beck said that she subjected herself to this difficult experience in order to achieve connection with people in an unfamiliar setting. "We all have a tendency to stay within our comfort zone," she said.
Beck, who in her freshman year co-founded the student organization Pangea, a group dedicated to raising awareness about issues facing the international community, hopes to connect students with the outside world.
This year, for example, to bring attention to the genocide in Darfur, Pangea plans to create a makeshift refugee camp on the academic quad. "Pangea works to cause change not by telling, but rather by showing," she said.
Beck said that connecting students to the situation helps create empathy. "In order to enact change, we do not need to sympathize. We need to empathize," she said.
Manno, who interned at the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence in her sophomore year, also spoke about empathy and her experience in an unfamiliar situation.
"My work was a success because of the ways I was motivated to reach outside myself," she said.
Manno then traced the psychological development of empathy in children. "Empathy develops normally and naturally in us all, whether we choose to suppress it or be transformed by it," she said. Manno said that empathy will motivate people to engage in public service, find solutions and reach beyond differences.
Newton, who is involved in several international relations-related efforts, spoke about her goal to help others overcome their own doubts. "There are moments in our lives when we are compelled to act," she said. "The question is, how?"
She said that as a leader at Tufts, she is committed to inspiring and empowering others. "It only takes one person to inspire others. That's how change happens," she said.
Nochur introduced his speech with a study by political scientist Robert Putnam that shows a decline in activist behavior in recent years. Putnam points to the busy society created by technology as a cause of this decline.
Nochur compared this study with his own experience as a devoted environmentalist.
He said that to combat apathy and for public service to take effect, "we must rediscover that spirit and redefine what it means to be a part of a community."
Sattler, who will be taking a public service job in Cambodia after graduation, spoke about her experience in Capetown, South Africa. She said that she had doubts about her own ability to help people in post-conflict situations, but realized that these same doubts existed in everyone.
"I learned how to listen and communicate ... in a situation that at first seemed impossible," she said.
Sattler said that through working together, "doubts can become distant memories."
She and the other finalists expressed their belief in the ability of the individual to inspire others. "We can and we will effect positive change in this world," she said.
