A recent Cornell graduate and a current junior, both from the College of Arts and Sciences, have just received major national awards: the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies and the Beinecke Brothers Memorial Scholarship.

James Kessler '96, a former College Scholar and Near Eastern studies major from Auburn, Ind., is one of 85 college seniors or recent graduates from nearly 800 applicants who will receive a 1997 Mellon Fellowship for a year of graduate study, which includes a stipend of $13,750 plus tuition and mandated fees. Daniel Louis Klein '98, also a College Scholar, from Pittsburgh, has received a 1997 Beinecke Scholarship for superior academic achievement and personal promise. The award includes $2,000 upon completion of undergraduate studies and $15,000 for each of two years in graduate school.

Kessler's and Klein's honors bring to 13 the number of prestigious national awards that Cornell undergraduates and recent graduates have garnered this year -- a record, according to Jacqueline Soltys, fellowships coordinator. (These awards do not include the many graduate fellowships, Cornell-specific awards and other honors that students may receive.)

"Cornell has had more prestigious awards this year than ever before -- 13 awards in nine prestigious competitions," Soltys said. "Each of these awards is a tribute to the talent and drive of the students who have won them. But these awards are also a sign of the quality of educational opportunity available at Cornell -- the research opportunities, facilities and scholars that have helped these students shape their goals. These awards honor the entire university. We can all take pride in them."

Mellon Fellow

Mellon Fellowships are awarded by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation to encourage and assist promising individuals in pursuing graduate study so that they can join the humanities faculties of America's colleges and universities.

Kessler, who studied Turkish-Soviet history at Cornell and graduated summa cum laude, hopes to teach Islamic and Ottoman history at the university level. His languages include Arabic, Turkish, Sinhala and Persian. At Cornell he pursued his interests in many extracurricular activities, such as co-founding the South Asia Association for Political and Academic Awareness and acting as a choreographer and dancer in Sitara, an Indian dance group. He will use the Mellon Fellowship to start a Ph.D. program next year at the University of Chicago.

Kessler entered Cornell thinking he would major in biology but quickly changed his plans.

"This isn't something I had intended on studying when I came to Cornell," he said of Near Eastern studies. But it was through Professor Ross Brann's class on Muslims, Christians and Jews in Islamic Spain that I fell in love with the field and decided I wanted to pursue it. It was something I accidentally stumbled on to, and it struck a chord."

Brann, chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies, said, "What I recall most vividly about James is that from the moment he arrived, he seemed more like a graduate student than an undergraduate. It is fairly unusual for a freshman to develop a commitment to Near Eastern studies so quickly. James undertook study of the cultures, religions, languages [Arabic, Persian and Turkish] and study abroad [Amman and Cairo] -- all while an undergraduate. So his preparation for grad school is exceptional as are his intelligence and focus."

Beinecke Scholar

Beinecke Scholarships recognize students of exceptional ability and achievement with some history of financial aid and give preference to those who plan to attend graduate school in the arts, humanities and/or behavioral or natural sciences.

Klein is one of 17 students to receive the award this year from among 51 nominees from 90 U.S. colleges and universities that participate in the competition on a rotating basis.

Klein is a National Merit Scholar and Dean's Scholar who also has received the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, National Science Scholarship and Cornell Club of Pittsburgh Award.

He is particularly interested in computer science, mathematics and linguistics and has conducted research on incorporating linguistic capabilities into computers. As a College Scholar, he has been able to study all of these fields concurrently.

"The nice thing about the College Scholar program is that it encourages you to do interdisciplinary work; there's definitely a sense of exploration," Klein said. "I have been able to combine and explore linguistics with mathematics and computer science at a university whose linguistics and computer science departments are among the best in the world."

Carol Rosen, professor in the Department of Modern Languages, said, "Dan Klein was my student in an independent study course, in which I learned a lot from him. He has genuinely interdisciplinary interests, and I found him to be creative and intellectually vigorous."

Klein has not yet chosen a particular college or university but hopes to study computer science at the graduate level and eventually land an academic teaching and research post.