December 17, 2004
-
News Item
Elizabeth Masiello
TPP Student Betsy Masiello Named Rhodes Scholar
Fifth TPP student to be so honored
By Lois Slavin, ESD Communications Director – November 22, 2004
ESD student Elizabeth (Betsy) Masiello has been named a Rhodes Scholar. She is the 5th TPP student to receive this award.
Currently enrolled in ESD’s Technology and Policy Program (TPP), Betsy graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley in 2003 in computer science. She has worked for the Department of Justice and National Security Agency, and started a tutoring program while she was in college.
Betsy intends to enroll in the M.Phil. in Economics at Oxford. Her longer term career goal is to work in the public sector, generating efficient policy solutions in the communications and information technology fields.
“I chose to come to TPP because I had become convinced very early of the importance of multi-disciplinary work to the advancement of science and technology,” said Betsy. “I couldn’t imagine a better place than MIT/ESD/TPP to do this kind of work and I have absolutely loved the program.”
“In TPP, I have learned new ways of thinking about the world and have been introduced to exciting fields I had never studied previously,” she continued. “However, the most striking aspect of TPP is the people. My classmates and professors are an amazing group and each has taught me more than I could even begin to describe. I can never thank them nearly enough for their support and encouragement.
Betsy is the 5th TPP student to receive a Rhodes Scholarship. The others are:
Caleb King, TPP ’90
Burt Monroe, TPP ’90
Anthony Staak, TPP 94 (who won from South Africa)
Jennifer Howard, TPP ’94
TPP’s founding director, Prof. Richard de Neufville remarked, “This kind of external validation of the extraordinary character of TPP students is great. TPP has an extraordinary proportion of the MIT students who have gotten this award — far, far greater than our proportional share of students.”
