Williams College senior Rachel Gabriella Shalev was in a car when she received the call on her cell phone that she was to receive a coveted Marshall Scholarship.
The prestigious award provides recipients with the opportunity and funds for two years of graduate study in the United Kingdom.
"I have no idea what the selection committee chair said after he told me I had won. I just remember writing down a phone number. I have no clue whose number it was or what I was supposed to do with it," said Rachel. "I was surprised and extremely excited. I'm glad I wasn't the one driving."
Scholarships were awarded to 43 candidates nationwide from a pool of about 1,000 students endorsed by their respective schools.
"Rachel's strong work ethic, her ability to synthesize large amounts of complex information and to articulate informed and sophisticated arguments, as well as her passion for history and political science made her an exceptional candidate," said Guillaume Aubert, assistant professor of history at Williams.
An undergraduate history major, Rachel plans to pursue a two-year M.Phil. in modern historiography at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland as preparation for a joint J.D./Ph.D. degree. In her graduate work, she hopes to continue to explore the construction of historical narratives, the interpretation of those texts, and the politicization of their lessons.
Rachel said she has always been interested in history and, at Williams, her professors "opened my eyes to the richness lying beneath and within what I had always seen as flat historical texts."
"… a common theme runs through all my papers," she wrote in her application for the Marshall Scholarship. "While the 'who,' 'what,' 'when,' and 'where' always vary, I relish the opportunity posed by each paper to explore the questions of 'how' - how different histories have been written and re-written. In this way, I find the study of history, and especially historiography, both intellectually gratifying and socially and politically relevant. "
This year Rachel has included in her course work a one semester independent study that considers the historical dynamics of the legal discourse about separation of church and state in France and the United States, comparing the development and renegotiation of each nation's separation model during critical historical moments.
"Her work clearly expresses a rare maturity and ability to integrate diverse subjects that are complex in scope, clear in sophistication and exemplary of her shear intellectual prowess," wrote President of the College Morton Owen Schapiro in recommending her for the Marshall. Rachel was one of 16 Williams candidates endorsed by the college in September and the only one to win a scholarship.
This is not the first honor for Rachel. In the past three years at Williams, she won the Nathan Brown Book Prize in History and the Richard Ager Newhall Book Prize in European History, a Beinecke Memorial Scholarship, and election to Phi Beta Kappa at the close of her junior year.
She also has been an important leader outside of the classroom, and "is as passionately committed to public service and citizenship as she is to the life of the mind," said Professor of History Shanti Marie Singham.
"In my career, I hope to balance academics with activism," Rachel said. She looks forward to being a legal practitioner and a professor of legal history and constitutional law, a career in which she can actively advance the public good.
"The generous education I have received at Williams College has only furthered my interest in exploring questions that push the limits of representation and demand new response to changing realities," she wrote in her Marshall application. "In my own intellectual process as a student, I have developed a pattern that embodies this impulse to push the boundaries."
At Williams, Rachel is co-president of College Democrats, a writer and editor of the Williams Progressive, a mentor and tutor of high school students from disadvantaged areas for A Better Chance, a peer health counselor, and a volunteer at Images Cinema, Williamstown's art, and only, cinema.
She is the daughter of Dorothy and Moshe Shalev of Old Saybrook, Conn. She graduated from Vernon Hills High School in Vernon Hills, Ill.
The scholarships, named after former U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall, were founded in 1953 in commemoration of the "humane ideals" of the Marshall Plan, which helped rebuild the Allied countries after World War II. They are funded by the British government and cover university fees and living expenses for two years of study in the UK.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.
Your Comments
iBerkshires.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary.
No Comments
Former Harry's Supermarket Under Construction for Restaurant
Late last month, the Conservation Commission greenlit some tree pruning on the property. New windows and a new door can be seen in the front of the building.
"It's a substantial renovation that's currently underway here," Brent White of White Engineering said, speaking on behalf of the applicant and owner, Huajie Zhu.
A fire gutted the longtime Wahconah Street supermarket in 2023, and the following year, Zhu purchased the property for $460,000 two years ago to build a restaurant with hibachi in the existing footprint of the more than 100-year-old building.
White explained that the project has been ongoing for over a year, and the Community Development Board granted the property a waiver to reduce the minimum required number of parking spaces so that additional spaces aren't needed.
He noted that, looking at the site plan, there is very little room to do so. A mirror will be installed near the sharp turn on Bel Air Avenue to alleviate traffic concerns.
Pruning will be done on trees in the southeast corner of the existing paved parking lot, as a number of branches are hanging over. The new owners also intend to patch, sealcoat, and re-stripe the parking lot.
A fire tore through the building less than an hour after the supermarket closed for the day three years ago. An automatic sprinkler system is required for the new use.
Cassidy Flynn scattered five hits in a complete-game effort in the circle as Lenox upset top-seeded Hoosac Valley, 3-2, in the quarter-finals of the Division 5 State Tournament. click for more
Brayden Durant struck out seven and walked one in a complete-game effort on the mound Saturday to pitch the Drury baseball team to a 6-0 win over Keefe Tech in the quarter-finals of the Division 5 State Tournament at Joe Wolfe Field. click for more
Jason Codey struck out 13, walked two and allowed just an infield single as the Generals earned a 7-1 win over Wahconah to claim their third straight regional title. click for more
Gracelyn Wright struck out eight, and Genevieve Lagess went 3-for-5 with four runs batted in as the Hurricanes beat Monson, 17-3, to claim their first Western Mass title in four years. click for more
For the boys, Ward Bianchi helped lead the way with a win in the shot put and a second place in the javelin as the Mounties finished 16 points ahead of runner-up Pittsfield (pending the results of the pole vault, which were unavailable at 11 p.m. Friday night). click for more
