Political science student Daniel Shih \u201910 last week was named one of 32 American 2010 Rhodes Scholars heading to Oxford University. Shih will begin studying there next fall.<\/p>\n
Shih, who was born and raised in Naperville, Ill., is also a 2009 Truman Scholar.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still figuring out exactly what I\u2019m going to study. I\u2019m interested in a few things, mainly the intersection between grassroots activism and government,\u201d Shih said. \u201cI\u2019m interested in how we can create space for grassroots activists and allow people\u2019s voices to be heard without having to be elected to government.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I might be studying comparative government and political science,\u201d Shih added. \u201cSomething in the Department of Politics and International Relations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shih has taken significant time off from Stanford to pursue both field research interests and to work on the campaign trail. He took over a year off school to work for the Obama campaign, eventually working as a field organizer in five states and, during the general election, becoming the regional field director in Albuquerque.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really important for me to take charge of my own education, to pursue opportunities that will help me grow as an individual, help me grow as an activist and a scholar,\u201d he said. \u201cWith that belief in taking some risks and trying new things, graduating in four straight years was not the most important thing to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shih received a Chappell Lougee grant his freshman year to research the social programs of Hugo Chavez. He continued the research into this quarter, which he took off to conduct field research on the Sino-Venezuelan political and economic relationship.<\/p>\n
On campus, Shih is involved with the Stanford Progressive Association and helped launched the Stanford Sweat-Free Campaign to get Stanford to join the Worker Rights Consortium.<\/p>\n
As for his future after Oxford, Shih admitted that he\u2019s long flirted with the idea of becoming an academic.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I want to consider the social impact that my work as an academic could have as well,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve always thought about how to make my work relevant to the people that I want to help \u2014 the people marginalized by government and by society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shih applied to the Rhodes Scholarship at the encouragement of a colleague that he worked with at the Obama campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe talked about her experiences in Oxford, and it made a big difference in my deciding to apply for the Rhodes Scholarship,\u201d Shih said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t aware that I even had a legitimate shot in any way.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never see yourself as a Rhodes Scholar,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s a little scary.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Political science student Daniel Shih \u201910 last week was named one of 32 American 2010 Rhodes Scholars heading to Oxford University. Shih will begin studying there next fall. Shih, who was born and raised in Naperville, Ill., is also a 2009 Truman Scholar. \u201cI\u2019m still figuring out exactly what I\u2019m going to study. I\u2019m interested […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61026\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}