Rhodes Scholar 2004: Jared Cohen

[queequek]

Congratulations Bro. Cohen!

(from Rhodes Scholar website)
"Jared Cohen is both an accomplished artist and a scholar of history and political science, with a special focus on Africa and U.S. foreign policy. In order to work, research, and travel through 21 different African countries, Jared has sold his own artwork in galleries and to private buyers. His book, 100 Days of Silence: America and the Rwanda Genocide, led to his employment as a consultant for PBS Frontline's documentary on that genocide. Jared's experience in government includes work at the State Department and summer employment at the Pentagon. Outside of government service, Jared worked for the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa). Jared is the youngest consultant for the Forum on Early Warning and Emergency Response, has worked for the Hoover Institution, and is the founder and editor-in-chief of Six Degrees: A Stanford Journal of Human Rights. Fluent in Kiswahili and conversant in Maa and its dialects, he spent three months living with the Maasai of Kenya, herding cattle and conducting research. He started the Ilboru Project, which sends school supplies and teaching aids to the Ilboru village of Tanzania, where Jared says his interest in Africa began. Jared was the first junior to win Stanford's Hines Prize for the best senior honors thesis and has won several research and anthropology awards. Before attending Stanford, Jared was an all-state Connecticut soccer goalie and holds the state record for most career saves (fourth all-time in the United States). Jared gets inspiration from his parents and sister "who have always encouraged me to follow my passion."

[queequek]

(from the Shields of Theta Delta Chi, vol 117, number 1, Spring 2004)

Eta Deuteron Brother Awarded Rhodes Scholaship
Jared Cohen, Eta Deuteron '04 (Stanford), was one of 32 American students selected as a Rhodes scholar in February from 963 applicants. Brother Cohen is a history and political science major with a passionate interest in African politics and human rights.

Since the age of ten, Jared has traveled extensively through Africa, visiting 21 countries in all. Being kidnapped while riding a camel in Egypt and being held up at gunpoint in Morocco have not damped his enthusiasm for the continent. Events like these have only increased his commitment to human rights in Africa and may have led to his slipping into the Eastern Congo under a pile of bananas to meet with the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide during his freshman year at Stanford.

In high school Jared started a nonprofit organization to send school supplies and teaching aides to Tanzania. While in Palo Alto, he completed an honor theses, "The Absence of Decision-Making: U.S. Policy Towards Rwanda from the Arusha Process Through the Genocide" on the 1994 Rwandan genocide. For his thesis he received the Hines Prize for the best senior honors thesis from Stanford's History Department, and he is working to make the thesis into a book. He is fluent in Swahili and conversational in the other African languages of Maa and Kilarusa. He can also read Arabic, Korean, Hebrew, and Amharic, the language of Ethiopia.

To add to an already impressive agenda, Jared, along with fellow Eta Deuts Adam Forest '05 and Eric Kramon '04, founded the magazine "Six Degrees: A Stanford Journal on Human Rights", which aims to promote human rights awareness on the Palo Alto campus. For a recent issue Brother Cohen recently interviewed Kenneth Kaunda, who served as the president of Zambia for 27 years.

While at Oxford, he plans on study for a doctoral degree in comparative politics or international relations with the eventual long-term goal of serving as the U.S. national security advisor.

Theta Delta Chi wishes Brother Jared Cohen the best for his studies and future endeavors.

[queequek]

Stanford News

[Peaches-n-Cream]

What an impressive accomplishment.

[jefflee108]

I was friends with Jared while he was a senior at Stanford and actually got to study in Oxford this last year while he was starting his Rhodes scholarship. He's done way more than even that bio lists and yet you wouldn't have any idea about it meeting him for the first time--I know I didn't. Ridiculously humble and friendly guy, although I doubt he'll stop at national security adviser-probably end up Secretary of State or something higher. Way to represent Theta Delt!


-Jeff Lee
ΦΚΨ