Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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USA Today top list features NU senior

Like the parents of many successful scholars, Cristina Bejan’s encouraged her to explore her personal interests and valued hard work.

But Bejan said her family’s unique cultural background provided the impetus for her latest achievements.

Earlier this week, Bejan was named to USA Today’s 2004 All-USA College Academic First Team. The Weinberg senior is one of 20 undergraduates at four-year colleges to win the award. She will receive a trophy and a $2,500 cash prize.

Two other seniors were named to the second and third teams, and one received an honorable mention.

Bejan, of Durham, N.C., was already an accomplished actress and playwright when she came to Northwestern as a theatre major.

She performed in several plays, including “Largo Desolato,” “Medea” and “Much Ado About Nothing.” She also wrote and produced two plays during her junior year abroad, at Oxford University in England.

One of the plays she wrote and produced abroad, “To Those Who Haven’t Stopped Thinking,” played in June to sold-out audiences at Oxford’s Burton Taylor Theatre. The show reflected Bejan’s growing interest in philosophy and human rights in Eastern Europe.

According to Bejan, her father’s Romanian heritage had a large influence on her world view and writing.

“I had exposure to Eastern Europe and Communism and that way of life ever since I was little,” she said. “Exploring Romania was very important to me, because it’s a place that just recently received those freedoms and achieved democracy and a capitalist functioning economy.”

Bejan said she has always been aware of the freedoms U.S. citizens enjoy. She developed a scholastic interest in the new freedoms gained in Romania.

“After Communism fell I became very curious and interested in where my family came from and taught myself the language and then went there on my own,” she said.

During her sophomore year, Bejan did an independent study in the Romanian language and spent the next summer researching Romanian human rights as an intern for the Freedom House in Bucharest.

While at Oxford Bejan attended conferences in the Czech Republic and Slovakia about the development of democracy and capitalism in Eastern Europe.

Though many would suspect being such a busy student would leave no time for other activities, Bejan is also a member of the women’s club ice hockey team.

“Sports were really important in my family,” Bejan said.

Bejan, also a Rhodes scholar, will return to Oxford next year to continue her studies in philosophy.

“I want to be the next (Jean-Paul) Sartre,” Bejan said. “He was a philosopher while a playwright. I’ve also thought of starting up a theater company with a friend in Berlin or London.”

And if Bejan doesn’t make it big in show business? “I want to be the (U.S.) ambassador to Romania,” she said. “Ever since I was little I’ve said that.”

Weinberg senior Tracy Carson of Chicago was named to USA Today’s 2004 second team. Carson earned a Marshall Scholarship in November and the Student Laureate Award for 2003 from the Lincoln Academy of Illinois.

McCormick senior Shawn Anthony of New Stanton, Pa., was named to the third team. Weinberg senior Susan Coelius Keplinger of Severna Park, Md., received an honorable mention.

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Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881
USA Today top list features NU senior