Return to Pointer View home page December 3,  2004

Four West Point cadets named as scholars: One Rhodes, Three Marshall 

By Jim Fox
Assistant Editor  

Four members of the Class of 2005 have been named scholars.

Cadet 1st Class Michael April	Cadet 1st Class Anna Hammerstrom
Cadet 1st Class Matt Powers	Cadet 1st Class Jay Choi

Officials for the Rhodes and Marshall scholarship programs issued press releases announcing the winners just before Thanksgiving.

Named in the releases were Cadet 1st Class Michael April, who earned a Rhodes Scholarship, and Cadets 1st Class Jay Choi, Anne Hammerstrom and Matt Powers were selected as Marshall scholars.

April was one of 32 American Rhodes Scholars selected from 904 applicants.

The 21-year-old, who calls Colorado Springs, Colo., home, plans to study towards a Master’s of Philosophy in medical anthropology.

The future Army Medical Service Corps officer said he hopes to draw Germany for his first duty station after completing his studies at Oxford and then medical school.

“Studying medical anthropology will provide me with the necessary background to set up health care in developing countries,” April said.

  Marshall scholar Choi is a 21-year-old life sciences major from Cerritos, Calif., who also plans on joining the Medical Service Corps.

Choi said he plans on studying for a Master’s of Science at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and then for one year at London’s Imperial College, for a Master’s of Science in infectious diseases.

Choi said that infectious diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide and that studying in the United Kingdom through the Marshall Scholarship will enable him to gain the background in public health and infectious diseases that would be impossible elsewhere.

“The public health program at the LSHTM is specific to the region of the world I am interested in (Africa),” Choi said.

Another Marshall scholar, 22-year-old Powers, said he plans on pursuing a degree in Chinese Studies and International Politics of Asia at the University of London, School of Oriental and Asian Studies.

“The School of Oriental and Asian Studies is the oldest and best Asian Studies program,” he said.

The Tulsa, Okla., native said he hopes “to gain a better understanding of the Chinese language, economy and political structure.”

The third cadet named a Marshall scholar, is Hammerstrom, a 22-year-old future Aviation branch officer from Hudson, Ohio .

The physics major will attend the University of Cambridge. She said she hopes to spend one year studying for a Master’s in Technology Policy and one year working towards a history and philosophy of science degree.

“As a physics major,” she said, “I’ve become increasingly interested in the policy debates that surround science and technology.”

Hammerstrom wants to study at Cambridge’s Technology Policy program, she said, because it is an unusual interdisciplinary mix of both technical and policy classes.

“It’s the single best place to study technology policy in the United Kingdom,” Hammerstrom said.

April is the 83rd cadet to earn a Rhodes scholarship since the academy began competing for them in 1923. West Point cadets have been named Marshall scholars 27 times since 1982.