Pickerington native and The Ohio State University’s first female Rhodes Scholar Jessica Hanzlik understands the importance of change: changing your focus, changing your location, and changing the world.

 

In 2008, then-22-year-old Hanzlik was selected from a highly competitive international group of young academics to be a Rhodes Scholar, and decided to pursue a doctorate’s degree in particle physics through the program.

 

Thirty-two American students are selected to be Rhodes Scholars each year — two from each of the 16 United States’ regions. To apply, Hanzlik was first selected by OSU from a pool of fellow students. She then submitted a written application to move on to regional interviews and was chosen out of 16 applicants from the region.

 

She graduated in June 2008 from OSU, where she majored in physics and French. In October of that year, she moved to the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom to be a full-time Rhodes Scholarship student.

 

Hanzlik expected a smooth transition from Ohio to Oxford, but realized soon after her arrival she would have to adjust to some unexpected culture shock.

 

“I’d spent several months studying in both France and Quebec, Canada, during undergrad, and so I thought that England would be easier than either of those places (given the lack of language barrier),” she says. “I was wrong!”

 

The culture was not the only change that required attention. Hanzlik had planned to pursue physics, one of her two undergraduate degrees, at Oxford. After some time, however, she realized her academic track needed to change.

 

“After my first year here I realized that I wasn’t enjoying the learning process anymore, which was a jarring experience,” Hanzlik remembers. “I have always loved school, and so not having fun was, for me, an indication that I needed to think about what I wanted to get out of this experience.”

 

Hanzlik then decided to wrap her particle physics research into a master’s project instead of a doctorate, and began a new program in comparative social policy. In this program, she studies education policy and researches gender differences in science education achievement.

 

In addition, she is enjoying the many opportunities for personal growth the Rhodes Scholarship has offered. Rhodes Scholars are chosen on the basis of their character as well as physical, intellectual and moral leadership qualities.

 

“Certainly the initial goals of the Scholarship — to bring together students from around the world to study at a great university — is still being fulfilled,” she says. “The relationships I’ve built at Oxford have taught me more than I’ve learned in class or in the library.”

 

Hanzlik has recognized the importance of academic discipline throughout her life. She attended Pickerington schools through eighth grade and Bishop Hartley High School in Columbus, where her mother taught science.

 

Her father and grandmother are also teachers, in math and chemistry, respectively, and she says studying the sciences comes naturally. Hanzlik credits her academic strength to the lessons she learned from her highly scholastic background, as well as her experience in the Pickerington Local School District.

 

“I have wonderfully vivid memories of being taught by passionate teachers at Pickerington, and their support, in combination with my parents’ continuous encouragement, have meant that I’ve always valued academic pursuits,” she says. “That ability to work hard at a difficult subject is still so important, and I’m lucky to have grown up in an environment in which I learned that lesson early.”

 

Hanzlik’s undergraduate experience at Ohio State is one reflection of her academic persistence.

In her undergraduate career, Hanzlik pursued physics and French, two very disparate fields, primarily out of interest.

 

Her experiences as a science major at the undergraduate level, specifically seeing how few women were involved in the field, led her to formulate an undergraduate French research project studying women’s involvement in the sciences. She also completed research projects in particle physics and physics education.

 

She’s since blended together those fields in her Rhodes research, as she examines the gender gap in science education in developed countries around the world.

 

Additionally, she works at the Oxford University Access Office and is involved with a community of female Rhodes scholars. Through these opportunities, she recruits students from traditionally under-represented backgrounds to attend Oxford, and organizes events to discuss questions of gender and power.

 

Hanzlik clearly has extended her interests past the boundaries of Pickerington, but she has returned home to Pickerington a few times since she left for Oxford. She was last home in January 2010, when she spoke at the Undergraduate Women in Physics Conference at Ohio State.

 

She’s not always booked with speaking engagements, though. She loves to visit with family and friends, shop and guzzle coffee at local coffeehouses.

 

“England doesn’t have unlimited coffee refills, unfortunately,” Hanzlik says, “I have to drink my fill when I’m home.”

 

She also maintains a close connection with her Ohio upbringing.

 

“Before coming to Oxford, it never occurred to me to identify culturally as Midwestern, and as Ohioan in particular, but I definitely do now,” she says. “Being away has revealed more clearly the things I value about home.”

 

Hanzlik will finish at Oxford in August and wants to move to the Chicago area, where her boyfriend, Frederick Kuehn, works as an astrophysicist.

 

She hopes to teach high school science and math in the future, and further explore gender issues in the science education system. In keeping with the Rhodes tradition to better society, Hanzlik hopes her teaching experience will help her to improve science education.

 

Right now, though, this Pickerington native is navigating through the competitive and exciting academic world at Oxford, and is honored to be the first female Rhodes Scholar from Ohio State.

 

“I hope it means that I serve as a role model for future OSU students who might not think they’re the ‘type’ to win a Rhodes Scholarship,” she says.

 

Shannon McMahon is a contributing writer for Pickerington Magazine