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http://www1.umn.edu/urelate/newsservice ... 33&page=NS

U of M student Ashley Lynne Nord named Rhodes Scholar

MEDIA NOTE: A photo of Nord is available upon request.

Contacts: Mark Cassutt, University News Service, cell (612) 396-5332, office (612) 624-8038

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL ( 11/23/2008 ) -- Ashley Lynne Nord, a senior in the University of Minnesota's Honors Program, has been named one of 32 Rhodes Scholars for 2008. She is a summa cum laude candidate for a Bachelor of Arts degree in global studies with a minor in Spanish studies, and a candidate for Bachelor of Science degrees in physics and astrophysics.

"Considering the talent, intellect and poise of my fellow Rhodes candidates, I was surprised to receive the Rhodes scholarship," said Nord. "I am very honored by the award and incredibly excited at the opportunity to study in Oxford."

Nord intends to pursue a doctorate in condensed matter physics at Oxford University, in preparation for a career in the field of biophysics. During her undergraduate career, she spent one summer studying abroad in Merida, Venezuela and two summers conducting research with funding from the National Science Foundation's Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy and in a biophysics laboratory at UCLA. At the university, Nord has worked on software for the motor and temperature control system of the cryogenic portion of a new instrument that is being built for the Massive Mirror Telescope on Mt. Hopkins in Arizona; studied a simulated neural network that interprets signals from the forearm; and conducted research on counter-terrorism.

"Ashley is an impressive student who deserves this prestigious honor," said Steven Crouch, dean of the Institute of Technology, the university's college of engineering, physical sciences and mathematics. "We are very proud to have helped her achieve this honor and pleased that she plans to continue her education in important areas of science."

A native of Rapid City, S.D., Nord, 23, is an accomplished pole vaulter and was a member of the university's Track and Field team from 2003-2008. She placed in several Big Ten championships and was an Academic All-Big Ten Honoree every year. According to Nord, her experiences as an athlete, including her recovery from several injuries, led to a passionate interest in the biological and medical applications of physics. At Oxford, Nord plans to pole vault with the Oxford track team and be a part of the Mountaineering Club.

"We are extremely proud of Ashley and her achievements," said James Parente, Jr., dean of the College of Liberal Arts. "Her rigorous academic program in Global Studies and Physics and Astrophysics at Minnesota has prepared her well for further study at one of the most distinguished institutions in the world and for presenting her future work to the international scientific community. She is an outstanding example of the academic excellence for which the University of Minnesota is renowned."

Nord's name has appeared on the Dean's List in every semester of her enrollment. She has been the recipient of a National Merit Scholarship, the Robert C. Byrd Excellence in Academics Scholarship and several other awards honoring her accomplishments in her diverse fields of specialization.

Nord's parents live in Rapid City, S.D. Her father is a family physician and her mother is retired. he has two brothers, Michael, 33, who received a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of New Mexico and currently works with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, and Jason, 31, who double majored in English and philosophy at the University of Nebraska, and later received a Masters in Montessori Education. He is currently a Montessori teacher in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Congrats Ashley!

Here is an image from the Gophers website:

This story was on the cover of the Minneapolis Sports paper today.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophe ... LanchO7DiU

Ashley Nord joined a select group of scholar/athletes Sunday when she was one of 32 candidates selected to receive a Rhodes Scholarship.

The idea of appearing before the Rhodes Scholarship selection committee has terrified many college overachievers in the past 104 years. Not Ashley Nord, who prepared for last weekend's interview with the same approach she used on the pole vault runway.

Nord set the bar high, analyzed what she needed to do to clear it, then roared toward her goal with a fearless spirit. The former Gophers vaulter succeeded, as she has done so many times in sports and in academics. Sunday, when Nord became one of 32 Rhodes Scholars for 2009, she joined another impressive subset: varsity athletes who have earned one of the most prestigious awards in American higher education.

The lesser lights of America's jockocracy have perpetuated the lingering stereotype of the slack-jawed, class-cutting, paper-plagiarizing athlete. Coaches who are paid more than most professors often turn blind eyes to learning-averse players, as evidenced by the low graduation rates and GPAs in many major sports. But Cecil Rhodes believed in the saying that the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, and his ideal of the educated athlete has been forever reflected in the scholarships he funded.

Among the requirements for Rhodes Scholars, "fondness for and success in sports'' is second only to "literary and scholastic attainments.'' Nord, a senior majoring in physics, astrophysics and global studies, is among the latest winners to prove those pursuits can coexist at the highest levels.

"To do both athletics and academics well, you have to schedule yourself carefully and take one thing at a time,'' said Nord, of Rapid City, S.D. "I'd bring my books to the training room and study while I was icing, and I'd always do homework on the bus or the plane.

"Some of my teammates made fun of me, and [coaches and professors] thought I was a little crazy to push so hard in both. But I'm proud of what I achieved.''

Nord, 23, is a former gymnast who became a South Dakota high school champion in the pole vault. Her early interest in physics -- shared by her dad, a doctor and amateur astronomer, and her brother, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins -- helped her refine her technique. By applying scientific principles to her sport, Nord became one of the Gophers' top female vaulters with a personal best of 13 feet and made the academic all-Big Ten team four years in a row.

Nord's knowledge of physics gave her a feeling of control over her athletic development. Her aptitude for sport -- particularly one in which she flew upside down 13 feet above the ground -- gave her confidence that transferred to her studies. By nurturing her body and her brain, Nord discovered the key to maximizing both.

"There was a period when I had to push myself to my professors, to prove to them I was taking [school] seriously,'' said Nord, who finished her athletic eligibility last spring and will graduate in December. "But I think we're seeing a change in that more athletes are getting the support to succeed academically.''

A dozen of this year's Rhodes Scholarship winners are varsity or club athletes. Florida State safety Myron Rolle completed his interview Saturday and then flew to Maryland to play in his football team's 37-3 victory. UCLA's Chris Joseph was a three-year starter on the offensive line. Lindsay Whorton finished her basketball career at Iowa's Drake University with 1,101 points, was the most valuable player of the 2007 Missouri Valley Conference tournament and was an academic All-America.

Despite the endurance of the dumb-jock stereotype, Rhodes winners provide ample evidence that sports and smarts are not mutually exclusive. Nord joins a group that includes basketball legend and former U.S. senator Bill Bradley; Supreme Court Justice Byron (Whizzer) White, a football star in college and the NFL; and Pete Dawkins, a Heisman Trophy winner and Army brigadier general.

During her time at Oxford, Nord plans to study biophysics, a field that captured her fancy when a sports injury gave her firsthand knowledge of the medical applications of physics. She also will continue pole vaulting for the Oxford University Athletics Club, an English institution since 1850.

"This is something I'm very proud of, and I think it's something good for younger girls to see,'' Nord said. "To get them involved in sports and science can give them so much confidence. You can excel at both.''

Rachel Blount • rblount@startribune.com

http://www.argusleader.com/article/2008 ... 002/sports

Former Rapid City pole vaulter reaches new heights
MICK GARRY • MGARRY@ARGUSLEADER • NOVEMBER 29, 2008

The first South Dakota girl to clear 12 feet in the high school pole vault never had any sustained suspense with her specialty as an athlete. The bar may have wobbled a little bit, but it ultimately stayed up or fell down, and she moved on.

Earlier this week, though, former Rapid City Stevens and University of Minnesota athlete Ashley Nord waited for her name to be called. Then she heard it. Ashley Nord was a Rhodes Scholar. Now she moves on.

" To be honest, I was stunned," said Nord, one of 32 chosen for 2009. "It took a few seconds to sink in. I thought, 'Wow, they just called my name. I'm going to England.' "

Nord completed a degree in astrophysics last May at Minnesota, and this fall - just for the heck of it, it would seem -- she will complete additional degrees in physics and global studies.

There is a portion of the world that views a degree in physics - after one has already been acquired in astrophysics - as a luxury worth pursuing. That world is not one the rest of us happen to live in.

And to think that Nord had that same feeling when she was visiting with some of the other Rhodes Scholar candidates.

"It's a really intelligent, diverse group," she said. "I kept thinking that they were amazing people, and that I was a little over my head here. Keeping up with people like that is going to be a challenge."

Nord's father is a doctor in Rapid City, and her brother is an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins - so academia has been a big part of the family. But her pursuit of pole vaulting has been just as ardent.

Her friends on both the athletic and academic sides of life tease her about her dual commitments, but she's never wanted it any other way.

"It's definitely been a challenge, and sometimes frustrating, to be honest," Nord said. "But that doesn't mean you can't excel at both simultaneously. Finding a balance has taught me a lot about time management. I really can't imagine one without the other. I always have appreciated getting a mental break from one as I do the other."

There's nothing like an astrophysics lab to take away the torment of a tough day at the vaulting pit. There are plenty of parallels between the two, however.

"In general, pole vaulting involves defining and pursuing a realistic goal, then trying to come up with a solution," Nord said. "You learn to deal with failure: If this didn't work, then how can we come up with something that will? You're essentially dealing with failure and taking the energy from that and turning it around into something that's useful."

Nord will pursue a doctorate in biophysics at the University of Oxford, where Rhodes Scholars have studied since 1904. She is a little intimidated by the academic rigors that await, but will continue to pole vault competitively.

Oxford, after all, has had a track team since 1850. She is not sure whether she will ultimately turn her attention to teaching or to industry at the end of her time in England, but she's resolved to enjoy the experience coming her way.

"One of the best things that can happen is to spend time around people with different viewpoints," she said. "If you can get into a conversation where at the end of it, you say, 'You're right and I'm wrong' - well, that is really cool."

http://www.gophersports.com/ViewArticle ... =204961147


Catching Up With Our Gopher Rhodes Scholar


Courtesy: University of Minnesota 06/19/2010

In high school, Ashley Nord set the South Dakota state record in pole vault and graduated as valedictorian of her Stevens High School class. At the University of Minnesota, she competed in pole vault, and had three majors in the classroom. Nord didn’t stop there, though. In 2008, she was named one of 32 Rhodes Scholars, and she is now working on a doctorate degree in Oxford, England.

Nord went into the Rhodes application process with an impressive résumé. Her academic experiences included majors in Astrophysics, Global Studies, and Physics; a summer studying in Venezuela; and participation in astrophysics and biophysics research with the University of Hawai’i and UCLA, respectively. Even with this strong background, Nord was still surprised when she learned that she had won a Rhodes scholarship.

“To be honest, I didn't think I would receive the scholarship,” she said. “I remember being stunned by the other applicants and their accomplishments. After the interview, I was very content with the experience, because I felt that it had prepared me for future similar situations, and I was prepared to leave with that as my only prize…When I accepted the scholarship, I felt incredibly honored, and that feeling has not diminished.”

She spent a week in Washington, D.C., getting to know other Rhodes scholars before setting off for England in the fall of 2009. When she arrived in Oxford in October, she was “awestruck and nervous.” The cultural differences between England and the United States took some getting used to, but her previous international experiences have helped her adjust.

“I think that situations that shove you outside your comfort zone help you to understand both yourself and others,” Nord said. “My times in Venezuela helped me to understand that being able to make cross-cultural comparisons and actually understanding the foreign culture are two very distinct things. I think this has helped me to step back and absorb the culture of Britain and Oxford with less hesitation.”

There are many structural and social differences between Oxford and typical American universities. For one thing, the 32 colleges at Oxford are not divided by area of study. And a student’s entire degree at Oxford is based on a single comprehensive test at the end of her years of study. Culturally, Oxford is generally more formal than American schools. Most students are required to wear black gowns to dinner.

Nord, now 25 and more accustomed to English culture, is working on her D.Phil (Oxford and Cambridge’s equivalent of a Ph.D) in Condensed Matter Physics—specifically in Biophysics—which will take about four years to earn. She has done some coursework, but her main focus is research. Nord is currently studying the physics of the bacterial flagellar motor—the motor on a bacterial cell that allows the cell to move.

“Once this is understood, this motor may be able to be used for nanoscale medical operations,” she said. “It seems a bit like science fiction at the moment, but imagine sticking a cancer drug to one of these motors, and sending the motor into the body to find the tumor and deliver the medicine.”

Even though she is doing this advanced research, Nord still finds time to continue her athletic pursuits. At the U of M, she cleared 13 feet in pole vault. She competed in the NCAA Midwest Region Championships in the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

At Oxford, Nord is competing in pole vault as well as training “less seriously” for some other events. She competed in this year’s meet against Cambridge—an event in which the likes of Harold Abrahams and Roger Bannister have participated. She even ran on the track where Bannister recorded the first sub-4 minute mile.

At Oxford, sports are run differently than NCAA sports. The differences start with the name—track and field is called “athletics” in England. Less superficially, the structure of sports is different, too.

“All the sport teams here are entirely student-run, which is incredibly cool,” Nord said. “It means that the athletes are never performing to please a coach or maintain a scholarship; they're out there simply because they love it. Since all of the responsibilities, including most of the coaching, fall upon the students, it creates a very intense bond among the team, which I love.”

In addition to competing, Nord is also helping coach other pole vaulters. The Oxford University Athletics Club isn’t as highly funded as the University of Minnesota program, but Nord says that the challenges that come with lower funding—along with a bigger reliance on herself and her teammates—have helped her to improve as both an athlete and a coach.

Another thing that has helped her is her family’s history of higher education. Nord’s older brothers, Michael and Jason, have a Ph.D. and a Masters, respectively.

“I absolutely would not be here if it wasn't for the encouragement of my older brothers and my parents,” she said. “It's always easier to do something someone else before you has done, and they're quite an inspiration. I am where I am because so many people chose to provide me with opportunities, and I'm incredibly grateful.”

Even now that she is across the Atlantic Ocean, doing groundbreaking research, competing in the same places as legends, and finding time to explore Europe, Nord still saves a place in her heart for memories from the U of M. She feels like her academics at the U prepared her well for Oxford. On the track side, she names Minnesota’s first Big Ten title as one of her favorite memories, and says that advice she has gotten from her former coaches has been useful.

“Track and the U of M taught me a great deal about teamwork and how to be an effective member of a team, which has been incredibly valuable here,” she said.

Best of luck to Ashley Nord as she continues her studies and athletics.

That was a good article. I find the differences interesting.