Two CU alums named as Rhodes and Marshall scholarship winners

By Susan S. Lang and Franklin Crawford

Two recent Cornell alumni have been chosen for two prestigious awards: Damany Gibbs '03 of Barbados is a 2005 Rhodes Scholarship winner; Michael Schwam-Baird '02 of Jacksonville, Fla., has been awarded a Marshall Scholarship.

Gibbs

Schwam-Baird

Gibbs is among a very select group of students, nationwide, chosen to receive a Rhodes Scholarship for two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England. The scholarship is considered the top academic scholarship award in the world.

Gibbs, who majored in operations research and industrial engineering, now works as an analyst at Morgan Stanley in New York. He is one of two people this year and the first Cornellian to win the Commonwealth Caribbean Rhodes Scholarship. He plans to use his Rhodes scholarship to earn an MBA at Oxford with a concentration in finance. His long-term goal is to use his skills in the continued development of an efficient capital market system in the Caribbean.

At Cornell, Gibbs served as treasurer and program coordinator of the National Society of Black Engineers. Also at Cornell, he worked with the Sponsors for Educational Opportunity Program (SEO), a nonprofit that provides mentoring services, career programs and financial education to black students and communities; he continues his work with SEO as an alumnus.

"I am extremely excited about the opportunity to pursue further studies at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar," said Gibbs. "It is an honor to have been selected, and I plan on living up to the responsibility that comes along with it by returning to the Caribbean and serving my community there as a leader in the regional financial services sector."

The Rhodes Scholarships were created in 1902 by the will of Cecil Rhodes, British philanthropist and colonial pioneer. Selection criteria for scholars include "high academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness, respect for others, potential for leadership and physical vigor."

The 32 Rhodes Scholars chosen from the United States join an international group of scholars chosen from 18 other jurisdictions around the world, including the nations of the Commonwealth Caribbean. Approximately 95 Scholars are selected worldwide each year.

As a Marshall Scholarship recipient, Schwam-Baird will also be heading to Oxford University, where he will pursue a master's degree in economic and social history. He applied for the award while enrolled as a College Scholar at Cornell, where he focused on literature, theory and writing.

"The flexibility of the College Scholar program gave me the room I needed to pursue my many interests," said Schwam-Baird. "I am very excited and honored to be a Marshall Scholar and to represent Cornell in England. I plan to use my time [at Oxford] to synthesize my interests -- literary and social theory, literature, economic justice, organizing and writing."

Since graduating in 2002, Schwam-Baird has worked as a researcher and organizer for the Service Employees International Union and managed a language and cultural exchange program in Ocotal, Nicaragua. There he taught English and worked with members of a farm cooperative seeking to become "fair trade certified" for coffee export.

Schwam-Baird was one of 40 U.S. students selected from approximately 1,000 applicants for the Marshall Scholarship, which was established in 1953 by an Act of Parliament. The award commemorates the ideals of General George C. Marshall, who spearheaded the post-WWII European Recovery Programme, now commonly known as the Marshall Plan. Along with the Rhodes Scholarship, it is the preeminent fellowship for Americans to study in the United Kingdom. It is funded by the British government and is administered, in the United Kingdom, by the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission and, in the United States, by the British Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Including Schwam-Baird, 29 Cornellians have been offered the scholarship since 1962.