<p>Click on:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/22/education/22rhodes.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=%5B/url%5D">http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/22/education/22rhodes.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=</a></p>
<p>The New York Times</p>
<p>November 22, 2004
In a First, 2 CUNY Students Win Rhodes Scholarships
By KAREN W. ARENSON</p>
<p>Eugene Shenderov was a small boy in Ukraine when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. He developed a weakened immune system and a passion for trying to conquer cancer. Now 21 and a senior at Brooklyn College, he is a straight-A student, the president of the chess club, a varsity tennis player and a member of the college's emergency medical team. </p>
<p>This weekend he learned that he was one of 32 American students - and one of two from the City University of New York - to win Rhodes Scholarships to study at the University of Oxford in England.</p>
<p>Mr. Shenderov came to the United States for treatment when he was 6. He has done science research at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, at Brooklyn College and at Oxford, where he spent last summer and plans to continue his studies in cancer immunology.</p>
<p>The other CUNY winner, also an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, is Lev A. Sviridov, a senior at the City College of New York. Mr. Sviridov also happened to be near Chernobyl, on a train from Moscow to Ukraine, when the explosion occurred. The disaster and the way it was handled kindled his interest in environmental research and science policy. </p>
<p>CUNY campuses have had previous Rhodes winners - Brooklyn in 1991, Queens College in 1982 and City College in 1939 - but this is the first year in which two CUNY students have won. The awards highlighted the university's continued role as a springboard for talented young immigrants.</p>
<p>"Many of our students are first-generation Americans who come from all over the world, land at CUNY and do remarkable things with their lives," said Matthew Goldstein, the university's chancellor. "It is a signature of what CUNY has represented from its founding more than 100 years ago." </p>
<p>Elliot F. Gerson, American secretary for the Rhodes Trust, which administers the scholarship, said he was not surprised to see newcomers like Mr. Shenderov and Mr. Sviridov among the latest scholars.</p>
<p>"One of the things that struck me in scanning the list," Mr. Gerson said over the weekend, "is that the story of America continues to be written by immigrants and first-generation Americans."</p>
<p>Other immigrants or children of immigrants on the list included Andrew Kim, a first-generation Korean-American from Marlton, N.J., who graduated from the University of Chicago in June; Laurel Yong-Hwa Lee, a senior at M.I.T. who came to this country from South Korea at 16; Ian Desai of Brooklyn Heights, another Chicago graduate, whose father came to the United States from India to study; Swati Mylavarapu, a senior at Harvard whose parents arrived from India 20 years ago; and Anastasia Piliavsky of Boston, who came to the United States from Ukraine at 14 and graduated from Boston University this year. Another winner, Kazi Sabeel Rahman of Scarsdale, N.Y., a senior at Harvard, has parents from Bangladesh, but was born in New York.</p>
<p>While many of the immigrant winners attended private colleges, Mr. Gerson said public universities like CUNY remained important in ensuring access to higher education.</p>
<p>"Despite the widespread availability of scholarships and the apparent generosity at many of the most selective colleges, the fact is that the stratospheric costs of elite education are an imposing barrier for many outstanding students of modest means," Mr. Gerson said. "Accessible public institutions remain critically important to meaningful equal opportunity in this country." </p>
<p>"From this year's elections, it seems that City University remains an extraordinary launching pad for new American ambitions," he added.</p>
<p>For Mr. Sviridov, who scavenged for cans and bottles in trash barrels in his early years in New York, the Rhodes represents not just prestige but a windfall.</p>
<p>His mother, Alexandra Sviridov, was a journalist and filmmaker in Moscow who exposed Russian government officials who were former KGB operatives. They came to New York for a visit in 1993, when Mr. Sviridov was 11, then stayed, afraid to return home when tanks rolled in. He was homeless for a time as his mother fought for the right to stay in the United States and searched for a job. Mr. Sviridov has himself held many jobs to bring in income; he said he would probably send part of his Rhodes stipend home to New York to help his mother.</p>
<p>The award, valued at about $35,000 a year, covers tuition, living expenses and transportation costs for two or three years at Oxford.</p>
<p>"The fact that I was broke and working at so many jobs - gardening, moving furniture, tutoring, working in the laboratory - paved the way for having great credentials for the Rhodes," said Mr. Sviridov, 22, a chemistry major who served as president of the City College student government and conducts research on aerosols.</p>
<p>His American citizenship papers came through this year, and after winning a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, he was inspired to try for the Rhodes.</p>
<p>Other universities with multiple Rhodes winners this year were Harvard, with six scholars; the United States Naval Academy, with three; and M.I.T., Yale, the University of Chicago and the University of Virginia, with two each. A list of all winners is online at <a href="http://www.rhodesscholar.org%5B/url%5D">www.rhodesscholar.org</a>.</p>
<p>Many of the winners have traveled widely and worked in public service jobs here and in other countries. Some, like Jennifer E. Howitt of Georgetown University, who has used a wheelchair since she was 9, have surmounted physical disabilities. Both of CUNY's Rhodes winners said that cost was a key factor in their decision to enroll at CUNY, but that they had not been disappointed with their education.</p>
<p>Mr. Shenderov, who has minors in biochemistry, nutrition and biology, said he found Brooklyn College's sciences strong.</p>
<p>"To a certain extent, they could use more equipment," he said. "But the faculty is fabulous."</p>
<p>Mr. Sviridov said that he had found the City College faculty very supportive, and that many professors told him they had followed paths like his.</p>
<p>"No one was born into something," he said. "They were all self-made people. My education there is terrific."</p>