Pitt student named Rhodes Scholar

In the span of three weeks, Cory Rodgers made the 7,500-mile journey between Tanzania… In the span of three weeks, Cory Rodgers made the 7,500-mile journey between Tanzania and Philadelphia -— twice.

The Pitt student flew to the United States for an interview with representatives from the Rhodes Trust on Nov. 18. By the end of the day, he was named one of 32 Rhodes Scholars nationwide, the seventh Pitt student ever to receive the title.

On Monday, Rodgers returned to Tanzania to continue his work with HIV and AIDS patients. He is currently completing his Pitt courses from Tanzania and hopes to finish his degrees by the end of the year. Rodgers’ degrees in the works include a Bachelor of Philosophy degree in Africana studies and the history and philosophy of science, and a Bachelor of Science degree in biological science with a chemistry minor.

Rodgers said that being named a Rhodes Scholar, along with the attention that comes with it, still feels unreal to him.

“At first, when you see your name in the newspaper, you don’t really think it’s you,” he said.

The Rhodes Trust will pay for Rodgers to attend Oxford University in the United Kingdom next year along with the other Rhodes Scholarship recipients.

At Oxford, Rodgers plans to a pursue a Master of Science degree in migration studies during his first year and one in medical anthropology during his second year, according to professor Edward Stricker, dean of Pitt’s Honors College.

“I foresee that these graduate programs will broaden and deepen his knowledge of the very issues he considers to be of most importance to his long-term plans,” Stricker said in an email.

In addition to the 32 American winners, the Rhodes Trust awards the scholarship to students around the globe. Last year, 51 students from outside the U.S., though this number varies from year to year.

Judith Zang, Pitt’s national scholarship advisor, said that the application for the Rhodes scholarship includes between five and eight letters of recommendation along with a 1,000-word personal statement.

Zang said that she did very little to help Rodgers, who had already won the Samuel Huntington Public Service Award and a grant from the Foundation for Asia Pacific Education by the time he began his application for the Rhodes Scholarship last spring.

“By the time he got to this one, his focus was just very, very sharp,” Zang said.

For the rest of this year, Rodgers will continue working to improve the living conditions for 22 men and women living with HIV and AIDS in Manzese, a district of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania. The patients are members of two local support groups that Rodgers became associated with once he arrived in the country.

Rodgers said that while the Tanzanian government provides its HIV-positive citizens with medication, basic sanitation and nutrition are harder to come by in shanty towns like Manzese.

AIDS medication can be just as dangerous as the disease itself for the poorly nourished, and Rodgers has been working with support groups to plan a project that he hopes will improve the health and quality of life for the 22 patients.

“It’s a very specific project that focuses on generating food and income,” he said about his plans to bring urban agriculture methods like sack gardening to the town.

Rodgers said that sack gardening involves filling sacks with soil and planting vegetables in them. In crowded cities, these sack gardens, which their owners can place on roofs or in other out-of-the-way places, can be more effective than traditional methods of gardening. He also wants to set up means to raise poultry and water tanks to improve water management.

Rodgers’ $10,000 Huntington award, which only two other students in the U.S. received in 2011, is being used to fund the Tanzania project.

With the interview over, Rodgers is eager to return to his project in Manzese.

“I want to get back to to Tanzania, first of all, because I have a responsibility, and second, because I was really enjoying it,” Rodgers said.