Early in December Megan Steven '02 was selected as one of 32 Rhodes Scholars from 925 applicants and will pursue a doctorate in medical sciences at the University of Oxford in England.Only eight other Dartmouth undergraduate and graduate students have received the distinction since 1988.
"The Rhodes Scholarship Committee should be extremely happy with their decision," said Dana Polanichka '02, one of Steven's closest friends. "They have chosen someone who combines talent, intelligence and motivation with humility, sincerity and kindness."
A psychology major with a neuroscience minor, Steven plans to use the Rhodes funds to study the visual cortex, a part of the brain which processes visual information.
At Oxford, Steven will be researching neural plasticity with Dr. Colin Blakemore, a world leader in vision sciences research.
Neural plasticity occurs when one type of information is processed in regions of the brain intended for processing other information. Steven will specifically study this phenomenon as it relates to children who had vision for a number of years, but then became blind.
Steven's past research experience includes a Women in Science Program internship in neuropsychology, the development of a motion detector device at the Thayer School of Engineering and Presidential Scholar work on spatial orientation and navigation with psychology professor Jeffrey Taube.
The common denominator in all her research, said Steven, is her relationship with her uncle, who is blind, but also suffers from spatial disorientation in the wake of a stroke.
"Megan believes that every single person is special, everyone has something amazing about them," Polanichka said. "She is always busy finding the best in everyone around her."
Steven had been considering the scholarship since her freshman year.
Through connections in the psychology department, she learned of Blakemore's research at Oxford and was invited to see his laboratory. After a positive interview, Steven knew she would research at Oxford whether or not she won the Rhodes.
Dartmouth supported Steven's candidacy for the scholarship, and a month later she learned she had been granted an interview in Concord.
Steven later felt confident about her interview performance, but said the neuroscientist on the six-member panel drilled her with technical questions.
"I had to be on my toes; there was no kidding around," Steven said.
Because the nine contenders for New Hampshire's single nomination slot had to wait together between interviews, Steven said the group was able to get to know each other very well by the end of the day.
"We played Pictionary," she said. "We would have been happy for anyone who got to go on. I felt honored to be chosen from among all those amazing people."
After Steven won New Hampshire's nomination, she still had one more round of competition two days later in Boston. The New England Rhodes Scholarship region had 13 finalists; only four would go to Oxford.
Thrilled and very excited, Steven said she could hardly believe she had been chosen.
"I tried to be confident, but you can't know, and it's such a long shot."
Steven's first reaction was to call her parents, and she spent half an hour on a pay phone with them.
Ecstatic, her parents called their relatives and had a champagne toast for their daughter when she arrived home later that night to Chatam, N.Y.
"It doesn't get any better as parents to see this happen to your kids," her father said, adding, "We're looking forward to visiting England."
Over the winter holiday, Steven's family organized a party at a local pub to thank the members of the small town that had helped to raise her.
"It's a really nurturing community," Steven said. "I felt close to a lot of the teachers I had, and they played a large role in helping me become the person that I am."
Steven's disabled uncle was especially proud of her. He joked that she should get extra Christmas presents this year.
In addition to her scientific accomplishments, Steven founded Dartmouth's chapter of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. She also developed the Planning for College Success program to encourage promising seventh and eighth grade Vermont students to attend college. In high school, Steven spent a summer bicycling from Seattle to Portland and was a champion volleyball player on a Junior Olympic team.
Since she participated in an LSA to France and taught English to children during an off-term in the Marshall Islands, Steven feels comfortable about spending three years abroad in England to work on her doctorate. Afterward, she would like to return to the United States and run a research lab at a university.
But Steven's aspirations do not stop there.
As neuroscience still remains male-dominated, Steven plans to strive to become a female leader in the Society for Neuroscience and in the scientific field in general.
"I'd like to break some of the lingering barriers in research society," she said.
For now, she is eager to continue her research at Oxford.
"It's such an exciting field. The brain really is sort of the last frontier that hasn't been entirely conquered and understood. It's because of the brain that we do everything, every second of the day."