Vision, dedication puts student on the 'Rhodes' to success

Senior Kathleen Tran barely has time to sleep.\nShe is a biology, biochemistry and piano performance major, and she wants to be both a doctor and a scientist. Her ultimate goal is to "bridge the gap between the hospital bed and the laboratory bench."\n"Science is the way I can most fundamentally affect people," Tran said.\nThis vision and dedication is probably what led Tran to be named Saturday as one of 32 American Rhodes Scholars, a program that awards students two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England. Tran will obtain a master of science in biochemistry at Oxford.\n"I'm overwhelmed and happy," Tran said Sunday.\nAfter applying, candidates for the nationwide scholarship must be endorsed by their university. Committees of Selection in each of state then nominate candidates who are interviewed by District Selection Committees in eight regions of the United States, according to the Rhodes Scholars Web site. \nTran was interviewed for the state portion of the competition Tuesday and Wednesday, then moved on to more interviews in Chicago this weekend.\n"The interviews are pretty grueling," Tran said. "I had hopes but no expectations." \nElliot Gerson, American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, said the Rhodes Scholar program is the oldest international scholarship available to American students. \nThe criteria for the scholarship are high academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness, respect for others, potential for leadership and physical vigor. \nThere were 981 applicants this year.\n"We'd like to think it's the most prestigious post bachelor scholarship anyone can win," Gerson said.\nAlan Bender, an associate professor of biology, taught Tran in a cell biology course in the fall of 2001. \nBender said Tran's thoughtfulness is what separates her from her fellow students.\n"I think that most students and faculty at IU are very bright. Something that distinguishes Kathleen from most of the rest of us is that she somehow managed to develop skills related to thoughtfulness much more quickly than most of the rest of us do," Bender said.\nTran said Bender is one of her academic mentors, along with Luba Edlina-Dubinsky, a piano professor, and Brian Serot, a physics professor.\nShe said her parents have always been a driving force in her life as well. \nTran's achievements did not begin when she started college. A Bloomington native, Tran had earned senior standing by the time she entered IU. She took her first course in piano when she was 11-years-old.\nTran is a member of the Vietnamese Student Association and the Taekwondo Club and was recently elected to Phi Beta Kappa.\nShe has also been named an Internal Wells Scholar, a Lilly Endowment Community Scholar, a National Merit Scholar and has had her poetry published. \n"It's really hard to balance things out," Tran said. "I barely, barely ever sleep."\nTran said that while she is extremely busy, her heart is in all the work she does.\n"I've always been just a really deep thinking and driven person," Tran said. "Everything I do, I genuinely love it"