The first thing you might want to know about Will
Polkinghorn is that he wasn't always a great student. Until he was diagnosed
with and treated for Attention Deficit Disorder at age 16, he was, in his
words, "no student at all."Six years later he is a Rhodes scholar.
Polkinghorn is the sixth Colby student to earn the most prestigious of scholarships, following Harold Soule '04, Abbott E. Smith '26, John G. Rideout '36, William C. Carter '38 and Jennifer Barber '78. He will spend two years at Oxford University.
His Rhodes selection is the crowning achievement of a nearly incredible academic turnaround for Polkinghorn, a native of Santa Monica, Calif. He was getting C's and D's as a sophomore in high school, he says, when doctors diagnosed him with ADD, a neurological condition marked by an inability to concentrate and usually treated with a medication called Ritalin. Soon after going on the medication, Polkinghorn recalled, "a light switch came on." Gradually, as he developed study skills and began to harness his long-dormant abilities, Polkinghorn's grades improved. After a year of postgraduate study at The Taft School to strengthen his academic skills, he came to Colby prepared to "hopefully do well enough to get into medical school," Polkinghorn said.
He has had no grade lower than an A since.
James McIntyre, associate professor of German and Russian, quipped that Polkinghorn--whose grade point average is 4.19-- "is the only student I know whose G.P.A. goes down when he gets an A."
Polkinghorn says he had given "no thought whatsoever" to pursuing a Rhodes Scholarship until McIntyre proposed it. "Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I could be a Rhodes scholar," he said. "Until very recently being a good student was a novelty to me."
McIntyre, who for 18 years has led candidates through the maze of requirements, essays and interviews associated with nationally competitive scholarships, was thrilled with Polkinghorn's selection. "I am phenomenally pleased that we're back on the Rhodes map," he said.
"Will has demonstrated that character and perseverance, combined with one's natural gifts, can produce a powerful result," said President Bill Cotter. "We are extremely proud of him."
Perhaps nobody on campus was prouder of Polkinghorn than Associate Professor of Religious Studies Nikki-Guninder Singh. Singh was one of the first of many Colby faculty who nurtured his blossoming talent. "I recognized right away that Will was a special person," Singh said. "I found him to be extremely bright and open to new ideas, and he had a wonderful refreshing quality about him. He is so very personable in addition to being a brilliant student."
"The papers that he wrote for me on different aspects of Eastern thought and literature always reflected boundless energy and sophisticated analysis," Singh said. "I was amazed how Will could intimately connect with temporally and spatially distant texts, and bring them to life for himself and for his classmates. He had a wonderful way of raising provocative issues in class, gently opening his peers towards new insights." Singh was so impressed with Polkinghorn that she literally pulled him from her office to the Registrar's Office during his first semester at Colby to declare religious studies as his major.
Chemistry professor Brad Mundy was similarly influential, kindling an interest that did not exist before Polkinghorn arrived at Colby. Eventually, having taken several courses in chemistry and religious studies, Polkinghorn decided to major in both. The rather curious academic combination probably set him apart from some other candidates, McIntyre said, and inspired a proposal that clearly impressed Rhodes judges.
Polkinghorn says that from his first day at Colby, faculty have been sources of inspiration. "Barbara Nelson [associate professor of Spanish] was my very first teacher at Colby and she was tough--she made me work very, very hard," he said. "In a way, she set the tone for everything that came later."
"I really give the credit for this to the people of Colby," he said. "When I came here I was at a point in my life when I needed the intimacy that Colby provides and the confidence that the people here have given me."
And he might not even have come to Colby had it not been for a meeting with Parker Beverage, dean of admissions and financial aid. It was Beverage, Polkinghorn says, who "won me over" at a college fair in California.
Polkinghorn, who aspires to be an M.D./Ph.D., will study the "PPP" course at Oxford, an interdisciplinary program in physiology, psychology and philosophy that deals with the complexities of the human mind.
Twice As Good
Though clearly thrilled with Polkinghorn's selection as
a Rhodes scholar, Colby faculty were almost equally excited about the College's
other Rhodes finalist, Jennie Oberzan '99 of Saco, Maine. Oberzan, along with
Polkinghorn, was chosen from 11 Maine candidates to represent the state in the
regional Rhodes competition. Only two students from each of the six states in
the region are chosen to advance to the final rounds, said Grossman Professor
of Economics Jan Hogendorn, a member of the Rhodes selection committee. "Jennie
was outstanding in her own right," Hogendorn said.
