Thouron Scholars named

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Six University students and seven students from universities in the United Kingdom were recently named 1998 Thouron Scholars.

The prestigious exchange program was set up to bring young people of exceptional ability into contact with the ideas and peoples of another country. Past Thouron Scholars include writers John Edgar Wideman ("Brothers and Keepers" and "The Cattle Killing") and David Bradley ("The Chaneysville Incident"); producers Steven Bayly ("Mrs. Dalloway") and Duncan Kenworthy ("Four Weddings and a Funeral"); and David Bell, chief executive officer of London's Financial Times.

This year's winners from the University are:

Shahzad Abbas, a senior English major, who will pursue a master of philosophy in English literature at Oxford;

John Bishop, who graduated from Wharton in December, applying for a B.A. honors in politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford;

Libby Copeland, a senior English major, applying for a master of philosophy in creative writing at the University of East Anglia;

Michael Gober, a senior dual degree student in English and Finance, applying for a master of philosophy in international relations at the London School of Economics;

Kathryn Minarik, a double major in psychology and theater arts, applying for a master of science in social psychology at the London School of Economics; and Andrea Ritchie, a political science major, applying to study international relations at Oxford.Award recipients must show academic excellence, leadersip potential and personal qualities that would lead them and their respective countries to benefit from the exchange. The awards were founded in 1960 by Sir John R.H. Thouron, K.B.E., and the late Esther du Pont, Lady Thouron. Lorene Cary (C/G'78), author of "Black Ice" and "The Price of a Child," as well as the just-released "Pride," studied at the University of Sussex in 1978-79 as a Thouron Fellow. She wrote of her experience in the April 1997 issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette: "I learned exactly what everyone else, British and American, reports in Fellowship brochures: a new 'freedom from blind chauvinism.' Like a museum curator who told me he spent early years in Europe 'just looking,' filling his eyes with Western art, I was graced to fill myself with the company of open, searching, funny, dead-serious people - and to discover a more critical, global perspective on my own nation."