Lenfield Awarded Wendell

Spencer B. L. Lenfield ’12, the recipient of the 110th annual Jacob Wendell Scholarship Prize, was honored at a dinner held at Loeb House on Saturday evening.

Lenfield, a History and Literature concentrator who lives in Eliot, will receive $17,000 in recognition of his academic distinction.

“I feel so thrilled and honored to receive this,” Lenfield said.

At the dinner, toasts were given by the oldest recipient of the scholarship present, Charles Hoppin, followed by the second oldest and then by a member of the Wendell family, Nathalie Wendell Thomas.

The family continues to fund the scholarship, 110 years after Barrett Wendell founded it in honor of his father, Jacob.

After being introduced by Dean of Freshmen Thomas A. Dingman, Lenfield also gave a brief speech, in which he said that the award was not only a recognition of the recipient’s potential, but a challenge to “go and use these resources to keep growing, keep exploring, keep acquiring the ideas that will allow you to become that person.”

He will use the money to study literature in Paris and Cambridge, England this summer, following a tradition of Wendell scholars using the award for summer plans.

Outside of class, Lenfield is a Ledecky Fellow at Harvard Magazine, a position rarely given to sophomores. He has also worked at the Radcliffe Institute for the past two years, and is one of 10 Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows—a program encouraging minority students to pursue Ph.D.s.

In an emailed statement, Lenfield advised students interested in literature and the arts not to over-schedule and leave enough time to “explore things completely unrelated to your coursework”.

The prize is open to any student at the beginning of their sophomore year, and is judged based on their academic performance as freshmen.

This year, 120 sophomores applied, with eight finalists making it through to interviews. The application process is fairly light, as candidates need only to fill out a uniform application, submit a sample paper and provide an academic reference from a professor.

David Jeruzalmi, Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and member of the selection committee for the prize, commented that although excellence in class must be the main factor, “overall, we look at the whole profile” of a student.