Naperville man: Rhodes Scholarship end of 'long road'

When he heard the news, Naperville native Daniel Shih was napping on a flight from Venezuela back to his California dorm at Stanford University.

Through a haze of sleep, Shih learned he was one of 30 American students selected this fall as a 2010 Rhodes scholar.

"When I really woke up, I asked my dad if I actually won or if it had been some cruel dream," he said.

The Rhodes scholarship is one of the most prestigious in the world. The winners were selected from 805 applicants at 326 schools, and Shih joins an international group of students.

His expenses will be fully covered for up to three years of study at the University of Oxford in England. The scholarships, worth about $50,000 per year, are awarded for attributes that include high academic achievement, personal integrity, leadership potential and physical vigor.

A Stanford senior and political science major, he plans to pursue a graduate degree in comparative politics at Oxford.

Earning this honor was an emotionally and academically "long road" that started last spring, Shih said. He submitted detailed applications and essays, rounded up letters of recommendation and endorsements, then submitted to a series of interviews that took place throughout the Midwest.

Scholarship officials were impressed with Shih's community organizing experience. He helped found the Stanford Sweat-Free Campaign, advocating for improved working conditions in factories that produce Stanford apparel. He has worked with the Chinese Progressive Association, a nonprofit community-organizing group in San Francisco's Chinatown.

"I was exposed to a lot of exploited workers and a lot of poverty," he said. "These people didn't understand their rights and that they can't be worked 18 hours a day and deserve their back-wages. That inspired me to see there is a lot of work to do, even in our own country."

In addition, he took more than a year off from Stanford to work on Barack Obama's presidential campaign, serving as regional field director in Albuquerque and a field organizer in five other states.

Shih's honors thesis, with field research in Venezuela, is on Sino-Venezuelan economic and political relations.

He said his work both in Venezuela and at Stanford taught him that people need more outlets to become active in their governments.

"I want to figure out how we, at a policy level, can find ways for people to be more active in their government and feel like they could have a political voice without running for office."