 | Rachel Walshe ’00
|  | Celebrating Success: Cong. Jim Langevin (D-RI) (center) and Rachel (r) are shown with her brother, Mathew, and parents Brendan Walshe and Maria Marquis after the rally honoring Rachel’s success.
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Rhody's first Rhodes ScholarAll the world’s a stage for Rachel Walshe, who was instantly thrust into the limelight last month when she was named the University’s first Rhodes Scholar.
Winning one of the most selective and competitive international scholarships places Walshe in the company of such past recipients as former President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter, and former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley.
One of only 32 Americans chosen from 950 applicants for this year’s award, Walshe will focus her studies on dramatic literature and theatre history at Oxford University in England for two years, with all of her expenses and a small stipend paid for by the scholarship.
A Class of 2000 graduate, the new Rhodes Scholar calls her accomplishment a team effort, acknowledging her supporting cast at URI’s Honors Scholarship Office. She’s especially grateful to Philosophy Professor Cheryl Foster, scholarship coordinator, whom she calls her cheerleader, her coach, and her friend and to Judith Swift, “a brilliant director,” a professor of communications and theater.
“A newspaper columnist recently wrote ‘that you know the world has been turned upside down when URI gets a Rhodes Scholar’,” Walshe said during the recent Rhodes Rally held in her honor. “I want him to know that I wasn’t named a Rhodes Scholar in spite of being a URI student. I was named a Rhodes Scholar because I attended the University of Rhode Island.”
Walshe said she got her passion for the theater when she was 12 years old while riding in a car with her mother, listening to the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack. “The rock musical about the last seven days of Christ’s life turned my life upside down and revolutionized my way of thinking,” said the 23-year-old who has worked 30 hours a week since she was 17 to fund her education. “I think that’s what art should do... show people a different way to see the world.”
At URI, Walshe majored in the philosophy of religions, a self-designed course of study. “My decision to explore religions and theology was not an episode in soul-searching. I don’t come from a particularly religious family, nor do I have strong ties to any particular tradition. I chose to study theology in my first years of college to explore those parts of human life that don’t readily lend themselves to language, logic or practicality.”
Walshe delved into the philosophical study of metaphysics and existentialism and shifted her emphasis from theology to aesthetics. “This was a decisive turn in my intellectual life,” explained Walshe. “Where studying faith traditions helped me examine the human inner life, I found that art, in particular the performing arts, was the process by which we articulate our inner lives.”
Living in a state with a rich theater tradition provided Walshe with practical, hands-on experience. Hired as the literary associate at Trinity Repertory Company for the 2000-2001 season, Walshe read all scripts submitted for consideration at the theater, wrote as a dramaturg (a specialist in the art of dramatic representation), and worked as an assistant director and director of various projects.
She is currently the full-time manager of Providence’s Perishable Theater.
After Oxford, Walshe wants to direct and work as a dramaturg. “They’re the chair scoochers who come to the table with the knowledge and tools to help mold a play,” she said. “It’s not an easy road. You don’t see many ads for dramaturgs in the classifieds, but then you don’t see many for philosophers, either.”
By Jan Wenzel
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