When Monica Marks graduated from Russell High School and entered college in 2004, she pictured a straightforward career path practicing civil-rights law.
But as the semesters went by at the University of
Her studies in political science, philosophy and gender issues shook up long-held assumptions.
“I began to understand that things I thought were simple were actually very complex,” she said.
Marks studied in Tanzania for a year and as a Fulbright Scholar in Turkey, where her concentration was in Islamic law. Now she is a Rhodes Scholar, one of 32 in the United States chosen this year for the oldest and most prestigious of academic awards.
Marks soon will fly to England to spend two years at the University of Oxford, where she will pursue a doctorate in Middle Eastern studies.
At 24, she hasn’t noticed the world about her getting any simpler. In fact, she said last week, the older she gets the more complicated things get.
“The world is always more complex than people tell you,” she told the assembled student body at her alma mater. However, she reassured the students, the more she learns, the less frightening the complexity is.
Marks is making a series of visits to Russell before leaving for Oxford. She spoke to the students about her travels and how a kid from Rush whose parents never went to college could go to UofL on scholarships and fight her way to the academic stratosphere.
Her three-ingredient recipe: “Be stubborn, be spunky, be determined. It requires a simple, sheer stubbornness to learn.”
That was especially important in her case. She was raised by parents who are Jehovah’s Witnesses, a religion that, in her words, “discouraged higher education among its practitioners.”
It is an attitude stemming from the belief that the end of the world is near, making the pursuit of education akin to “polishing the brass on a sinking ship,” she said.
Marks treated her visit to Russell as a homecoming, hugging a succession of her former teachers and mentors.
She transferred to Russell from East Carter in part for the chance to join Russell’s academic team.
“We all knew she was destined for greatness,” said academic coach Kirk Barnett. The intellect was there, but just as important, he said, was the determination. “The thing that makes her different is that she shapes her experiences.”
The path to the Rhodes Scholarship was not without bumps. Marks didn’t win every academic distinction she sought, such as the McConnell Scholars program at UofL. She didn’t even get an interview.
But she handled setbacks well, said counselor Carolyn Shelton.
“She handles success with an A-plus attitude and she handles disappointment with an A-plus attitude,” Shelton said.
Besides Tanzania and Turkey, Marks has traveled to Jordan, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Bosnia. She has studied Swahili, Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish and Farsi.
Marks told students one of the most common questions she hears is, “How does one becomes a Rhodes Scholar?”
“You don’t do it all at once. It’s a series of small steps, like shaving off slices of salami,” she said.
She encouraged the students to force themselves to learn, to read, to entertain ideas, even ones they disagree with.
She asked them to set aside stereotypes, reminding them that as Kentuckians and Appalachians, they are subject to preconceived assumptions themselves. She hopes that will help them understand the Muslim world better.