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Rhodes Scholars include five NCAA student-athletes

Five NCAA student-athletes were among 32 Americans recently chosen as Rhodes Scholars for 2010.

The highly competitive Rhodes Scholarships were established in 1902 and provide all expenses for two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England. This year, 216 candidates from 97 colleges and universities reached the final stage of the two-step application process. About 80 scholars are selected worldwide each year.

Swimmer Andrew J. McCall was chosen as Truman State’s first Rhodes Scholar. He joins fellow NCAA student-athletes Jordan D. Anderson, swimming and diving, Auburn; Justine O. Schluntz, swimming and diving, Arizona; Elizabeth A. Betterbed, soccer, Army; and Brittany L. Morreale, cross country, Air Force.

McCall, a philosophy and religion major, was a five-time All-American and captain of the Truman swim team. In addition to excelling in the pool, he is a violinist in the university symphony. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa as a junior, he has also taken courses in Vienna, Austria and at Colorado.

Auburn’s Anderson is a biomedical science major and captain of the Tigers’ swim team. The All-American was a member of two NCAA national-championship squads and has done organic chemistry research on the phototyzing effects of UV light on the eye. He plans to study global health sciences at Oxford.

A nine-time All-American at Arizona and a member of the 2008 Division championship team, Schluntz earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering this past spring and is pursuing a graduate degree at the school in fluid dynamics. She has been active in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program as well as other community initiatives in Tucson and southern Arizona.

Betterbed, who ranks second academically and first overall (academic/physical, military) in her class at Army, is a member of the Black Knights’ soccer squad. The academic All-American conducted research for the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review and is a member of a team of cadets designing and building a powered prosthetic football that will allow wounded soldiers to run.

In addition to serving as captain of Air Force’s cross country team Morreale, served as wing command chief during her junior year and plays the violin in the school’s orchestra. A physics major with an emphasis in astronomy and a minor in Japanese, Morreale joined an international scientific team in a meteorite shower study.