Scholar Names N-R

Alexander Nemser

US University: Yale University

Alexander Nemser grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A Literature major at Yale and Phi Beta Kappa member, he studies English and Russian poetry. His poems have appeared in the New York Times and are forthcoming in The Atlantic Monthly and the film The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert DeNiro. He has won the Meeker, Veech, and Curtis Prizes in English from Yale and First Prize in the 2004 Atlantic Monthly Student Writing Contest, and read in the 2005 Connecticut Student Poetry Circuit. He wrote his thesis on the poets Robert Lowell and Boris Pasternak. He plans to pursue an MPhil in European Literature at Oxford.

Mark Otuteye

US University: Stanford University

Mark Otuteye graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a B.A. in African American Studies with honors. He completed an M.A. in Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford in which he took half his coursework in computer science while developing software to help poets and fiction writers visualize the writing process. During his freshmen year, Mark co-founded the Stanford Spoken Word Collective, a group of sixteen performance poets who mentor high school and college students in creative writing. While leading the Collective for four years, Mark taught over fifty poetry workshops and wrote over one hundred poems, twenty-one of which he memorized. As a Marshall Scholar, Mark will pursue two Masters of Studies at Oxford: the first in Literature and the second in Computer Science.

James Parris

US University: University of Delaware

James Parris will graduate in May from the University of Delaware with a B.S. in Biochemistry and a minor in Biology. He has conducted research for the past three years under Dr. Ulhas Naik studying the developmental expression of the protein JAM-A. His work has resulted in a publication and he was awarded a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. He enjoys working as a teaching assistant for introductory biology courses and, in his spare time, practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. James will pursue an MPhil in Human Genetics at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne where he will study embryonic stem cell biology.

Peter Quaranto

US University: University of Notre Dame

A native of Franklin, Massachusetts, Peter Quaranto will graduate this spring from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in international peace studies and political science. After studying in Uganda last year, Peter founded the Uganda Conflict Action Network, an advocacy campaign working to end the two-decade-old war in that country. He earlier spent time in Cambodia, where he organized youth peacebuilding workshops. At Notre Dame, Peter has been a leader in social justice campaigns, a Big Brother and a political columnist for the student newspaper. He plans to continue his study of peacebuilding at the University of Bradford.

Julia Rafal

US University: George Washington University

Julia Rafal graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from The George Washington University in May 2004. She received her B.A. in psychology and sociology. Following graduation, Julia accepted a position with Teach For America as a corps member in New York City. She currently teaches special education at PS 246 in the Bronx. This summer Julia will complete her M.A. in both special education and childhood education from The City University of New York: Lehman College. At Cambridge, she looks forward to pursuing a PhD in Education, focusing her research on inclusive and comparative education.