Schools

Former Darien Resident Named Rhodes Scholar

Ishan Nath spent his elementary school years in Darien. Next stop for the Stanford senior: Oxford.

Even as a student at , Ishan Nath had his sights set on Stanford University.

“He would repeatedly tell me that he was going (there),” said Marty Casey, then at Eisenhower. “I never doubted for one minute that he would achieve his goal.”

And sure enough Nath did. He graduates from Stanford this spring.

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From there, Nath heads off on his next adventure. 

In November, he was named a Rhodes Scholar, one of the most prestigious honors a student can receive. Next fall he’ll start graduate studies in economic development at the University of Oxford in the U.K. 

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While many college students spend their summers scooping ice cream or slaving at low-level internships, Nath has focused on making a real-world impact.

During the summer of 2010, he served as a research intern with the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling.

Through that internship, he was promoted to senior consultant with the U.S. Department of Energy.

As a consultant, he looked at the economic issues around different liability structures in the oil industry.

“The big issue was whether BP or future oil companies should be liable to all the people who lost their jobs or had their businesses or lives affected by the oil spill,” he said. 

Nath is fascinated with economics from not just a research perspective but also in terms of policymaking, an interest he honed during a White House internship this summer.

He spent three months in the Office of the Vice President helping to cull background information on various policy issues. 

“I’d like to follow the career paths of some of the role models I met there,” Nath said.

Born in India, Nath and his family moved to Joliet when he was 2 before settling in Darien when he was 5.

“Darien was a great place with really great people,” he said. “The friends I made in elementary school and junior high definitely feel like they will be lifelong friends.”

After he finished eighth grade, Nath’s family moved to Atlanta, but he said he has very fond memories of being a student at Lace and EJH. 

“Literally every teacher was someone who really cared about education, and I think that was really crucial in helping me for everything that came after junior high,” he said.

The admiration is mutual.

“Not only did he excel in his academics, but he was also an athlete on the basketball team,” Casey said. “He never bragged about his intelligence and would go out of his way to offer assistance to any classmate who needed extra support.”

In what little spare time Nath has, the diehard Bulls fan religiously follows Chicago sports. He plans to spend this Christmas perched in front of the TV watching the Bulls take on the Lakers in the first game of the lockout-delayed season. 

“I haven’t looked forward to Christmas this much since I was 7 years old,” he said.

It will be some rare downtime for the busy senior. 

After his year-long Master’s program at Oxford, Nath plans to return to the U.S. to get his PhD in economics. Though he doesn’t know where that will be yet, unsurprisingly, he has big goals.

“I want to go to the best school that wants me,” he said.

If Nath’s history is a predictor, no doubt the best schools will be the ones that want him.


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