Sasha-Mae Eccleston '06 did not have anything to drink at the Rhodes Scholarship candidates' cocktail party Friday night.
"I just wanted to keep as alert as possible," she said, laughing.
It worked - the next day, she was named a 2006 Rhodes Scholar.
Eccleston, a double-concentrator in classics and literary arts from Lawrence-ville, N.J., found out she had won the prestigious scholarship - which sends 32 American students to study at Oxford University in England - on Saturday afternoon.
"I interviewed at 8 a.m. (Saturday), and I had a re-interview at about 3 p.m. and I found out at 4 p.m.," she said, describing the two-day interview process that began with the cocktail party Friday.
Eccleston said she decided to apply for the scholarship at the encouragement of Associate Dean of the College Linda Dunleavy and received "immense" help from the Fellowships Office, as well as from former Rhodes scholars and judges who helped her prepare.
"They were there for everything from late-night phone calls, because I'm freaking out, to the actual paperwork," she said. But Eccleston said she enjoyed the process.
Along with Lilla Fisher '06, Eccleston founded an all-black Ivy League undergraduate discussion group called Build, which she said will become a "full-fledged organization" called Basic by the end of the school year.
Eccleston plans to spend two years at Oxford studying for a master of philosophy degree - the English equivalent of a master of arts - in Greek and Latin, then return to the United States to obtain her Ph.D. She then wants to become a professor and help with non-profit groups, she said.
Eccleston was Brown's only Rhodes Scholar this year and was the first Brunonian to win the scholarship since Olivia Rissland '04.
