Holy Cross Students Earn Beinecke, Goldwater Scholarships

WORCESTER, Mass. – Two Holy Cross students have received prestigious national scholarships.

Timothy Duffy ’06, an English major and anthropology minor currently studying abroad at Oxford University, is one of only 18 college students nationwide selected to receive a 2005 Beinecke scholarship. Each scholar receives $2,000 after graduating from college and an additional $30,000 while attending graduate school. He is a resident of Woburn, Mass.

Duffy’s career goal is to earn a Ph.D. in English literature, focusing on the literature of the English Renaissance, specifically the early 17th century.

"My goals reflect a desire to enter the complicated and competitive world of scholarship and teaching at the university level," he said. "I have dreams of not only passing on my love for English literature to the next generation, but also to enter the intellectual ‘marketplace’ as it’s called, to explore, with others in the field, the complexities, demands and revelations of the field, publishing my ideas and working with colleagues to make sense of such a complicated period, The English Renaissance."

At Holy Cross, Duffy has served as co-chair of Poetry Circle and is a member of the English Student Advisory Council. He is a writer and copy editor for the Crusader, the College’s weekly newspaper. At Oxford, Duffy has performed in a poetry festival, has written for journals and is experimenting with English style choir.

Justin Parrella ’06, a chemistry major from Lexington, Mass., has earned a 2005 Goldwater Scholarship Award. He plans on studying physics in graduate school and conducting research in quantum optics/information. The research that Parrella has proposed as a Goldwater scholar merges his interests in environmental change with chemistry.

Describing his project, Parrella said: "I wrote on the design of molecular light harvesting arrays for environmentally benign energy production."

Parrella was selected as a Goldwater recipient on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,091 students majoring in mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering who were nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide. The scholarship will cover the cost of tuition, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year.