Boston University 2014 graduate Bethany Saul might be unable to get to New York on time for her Rhodes Scholarship interview on Saturday due to the dangerous snowfall that hit her hometown of Buffalo, New York Tuesday.
Saul, a 2014 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences, is seeking to achieve one of her life long dreams: being accepted to the Rhodes Scholarship program. She said she hopes to get on a plane at the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport Friday morning to attend a dinner and cocktail party for all the applicants Friday night.
“I’ve always kind of had it in my mind that I wanted to apply for the Rhodes. I’ve always known that that was a thing I would really love to do,” Saul told The Daily Free Press Thursday. “I applied by July for BU’s internal decision process. So I actually did the application from the Middle East when I was doing research. I remember I did it in the hotel room in Beirut.”
Over Summer 2014, Saul spent time in the Middle East doing research on Syrian refugees in Jordan. She moved back to Buffalo in September and is doing research for a local law firm.
Saul, however, was confronted with the possibility of missing her Rhodes Scholarship interviews and other events when parts of Upstate New York, including Buffalo, were hit with a severe snowstorm, making roads too dangerous for travel and canceling several flights.
“If all of the things go well tonight and tomorrow [Friday] morning, I will be able to make it to my interview,” she said. “The roads are very dangerous. I’ve never seen so much snow. You can’t really be out on the road.”
Saul contacted the chairperson of the New York committee for the Rhodes Scholarship to explain her predicament and was received with understanding and offers for help. The committee must choose between applicants this weekend for logistical reasons, but they offered to explore other alternatives to an in-person interview, she said.
“It’s a national emergency, but you don’t want to be remembered for causing any sort of trouble, so I was very nervous to contact them,” she said. “They couldn’t have been nicer about it.”
Saul was an international relations major with a double minor in Arabic and political science. During her time at BU, she sang with the Marsh Chapel Choir and was a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. scholar.
While in other circumstances she would be upset, Saul said she has accepted the fact that she may not make it to her interview.
“It’s been an unfortunate situation, but at the end of the day, it’s not life and death, and it’s really unfortunate that I might not be able to make it to this interview,” she said. “I just think that there are far worse things going on in the world than this.”
