Oxford bound: Laguna Blanca's Cameron Platt '12 wins Rhodes Scholarship

Reprinted by SB Newspress
BY TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT

One of the world's most prestigious education awards, the Rhodes Scholarship, has gone to a former Laguna Blanca student, Cameron Platt. The former Santa Barbara resident is finishing off her studies at Princeton University in New Jersey and then will be heading off to study at Oxford University, where the Rhodes Scholarship originates, to continue her studies in English Literature, with minors in theater and medieval studies.

"It didn't feel real at first, and I'm not sure it does now," said Miss Platt, in an email interview. "There's an aura of mystery around the process, so I don't know anything specific about why I was chosen."

She had flown from Princeton to Los Angeles last week to take part in the final interviews, where seven committee members meet the 13 finalists. After a long day of interviews, the finalists waited for hours together while the committee deliberated.

"We talked and played games, so we got to know each other well."

Miss Platt's name was announced in front of the entire group, along with the other of that group's scholarship recipient, Hassaan Shahawy. (The annual total of scholarships is 32.)

"I felt thrilled but humbled to be selected from such an extraordinary and gracious group."

Her senior thesis is on the "narrative and spacial wanderings" of William Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf, and it was through a Princeton fellowship over the summer that she got to visit Oxford for the first time, studying at the Bodleian Library, one of the oldest libraries in Europe.

"I fell in love with Oxford," she said, "and I knew that the Rhodes could be the dream opportunity to study there within a community of similarly committed scholars from different backgrounds and disciplines."

Miss Platt attended, in order, Montessori Center School, Crane Country Day School, and Montecito Union School, until spending the majority of her teens at Laguna Blanca. Speaking of her education she said, "I'm grateful for so many of the wonderful teachers who have brought me up through my education, but I owe deep and particular thanks to Laguna's remarkable English Department, whose faculty sparked and nurtured my literary passions."

This is not Miss Platt's first academic award at Princeton. She's also earned the George B. Wood Legacy Junior Prize, as well as the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence.

Apart from her major, she is also keenly involved in the acting community at Princeton. She is president of Princeton University Players, and whether as an actor, director or in other roles, Miss Platt has been a part of more than 30 productions. She said she will continue that interest at Oxford, which also has a long tradition of attracting students who later changed their careers to acting, including Michael Palin, Dudley Moore and Rowan Atkinson.

"I don't know exactly how my literary and theatrical interests will intersect in the future," she said. "But I hope to carry them both forward as far as possible."
"Cameron is a wonderful citizen of Princeton's community, and I know she'll go on to be an equally productive and inspiring citizen of the world," said Jill Dolan, dean of the college, in a Princeton website interview. "Her compassion and commitment is thrilling to witness, and gives me hope for all the people and places she'll touch."
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