Saint Peter’s College Senior Wins Prestigious Scholarships

March 13, 2003— Jersey City, NJ- Saint Peter’s College senior Rose Ann Holandez (Belleville, NJ) won the prestigious Davies-Jackson Scholarship to attend St. John’s College at Cambridge University. Saint Peter’s becomes the first school in the nation to have had two Davies-Jackson winners. Delicia Reynolds won in 1999.

Holandez was selected from a pool of more than 70 applicants culled from the 164 eligible institutions. The scholarship, which was established by an anonymous benefactor, is presented to a student from one of the eligible schools, which have an undergraduate enrollment between 2,000-5,000, educate a significant proportion of first-generation students and are less expensive and elite than other nationally renowned private liberal arts colleges and universities. The Davies-Jackson Scholarship allows one United States college graduate with outstanding academic records, who are among the first in their families to graduate college, to participate in a course of study at St. John’s College at the University of Cambridge.

After two years of study, Holandez will be awarded a Cambridge B.A. degree, often referred to as the Cantab degree, which is the equivalent of a Masters degree in the U.S. The award is valued at nearly $50,000 and includes tuition, full room and board for two years, along with a travel grant to and from England.“I have worked for this goal since Delicia won it during my freshman year,” Holandez, who chose Saint Peter’s over Brown, Wellsleyan and Barnard, said. “It is a great opportunity to study abroad at one of the world’s finest institutions. When I got to Saint Peter’s, I was determined to make the most of my college education. This scholarship to attend St. John’s is a great reward. I’m looking forward to going.”

This is not the first major award Holandez has earned as aSaint Peter’s College undergraduate. She was a finalist for the Truman Scholarship, public service’s top scholastic honor, and participated in the 2002 Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs Junior Summer Institute at Princeton University. Last fall, Holandez won an International Student Exchange Program travel scholarship and studied at the Graduate School for International Studies at Ewha University in Seoul, South Korea.

Holandez has a 3.97 grade point average at Saint Peter’s with a major in political science. The Lacordaire Academy (Upper Montclair, NJ) graduate is involved in numerous campus activities at Saint Peter’s including Pax Christi, the social justice club, Community Service Council, Peer Education and the Student Senate Financial Evaluation Committee. She also helped start the First Friends at SPC group, a student volunteer organization that visits non-criminal detainees at the Elizabeth Detention Center. “Rose is a terrific student, and she is a fine example of the kind of person who attends Saint Peter’s College,” said Dr. Peter Costello, Saint Peter’s College Director, Graduate Studies and Special Scholarships. “As a first generation college student, Rose remains dedicated to the world of academics as well as to the world of her fellow human beings. We celebrate Rose’s accomplishments. She is a tribute to herself, to our diverse student body, to the Jesuit tradition of outstanding education and to our fine faculty and staff.”

St John’s College was founded in 1511 by Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII, and is the second largest College at the University of Cambridge. St. John’s College has 750 students and is among the most renowned of the nearly 30 colleges that together comprise Cambridge, one of the oldest and most distinguished institutions of higher learning in the world.