13 WTHR - Indianapolis News |North Central grad chosen as Rhodes Scholar

North Central grad chosen as Rhodes Scholar

Kevin Rader/Eyewitness News

Indianapolis - An Indianapolis native received a high academic honor this weekend.

Darryl W. Finkton, a 2006 North Central High School graduate studying at Harvard, was chosen as a Rhodes Scholar, earning a scholarship for two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England. Finkton was one of 32 scholarship winners named out of 805 students endorsed by more than 300 colleges and universities.

The news is exciting for Finkton's mother, Stephanie, a single mother of four whose youngest son told her the news over the weekend.

"I was just excited about him graduating from Harvard and going on to medical school. I wasn't expecting this," she said.

Finkton will be graduating from Harvard in the spring. He had planned on attending medical school in the fall, until he got the news from the Rhodes Trust and told his mother.

"I told her I won this scholarship and they will pay for me to go to Oxford for two years, so I would be leaving to live in England to study global health and business," he said Monday.

"In my prayers, I asked God, 'Wherever you send him, send him where he wants to be'," Stephanie Finkton said. "I know I might not get to see him for awhile, but send me someplace warm, so I can go visit."

It didn't take long for the news to spread at North Central. Not only are all the teachers and administrators talking about Finkton's scholarship, but the students are buzzing about it as well.

"I remember one time he was trying to get into an honors class and we didn't have any more seats and he said, 'I'll sit on the floor. I just need another AP class'," said guidance counselor Kim Dickerson.

He starred in basketball at North Central and played two years at Harvard before he injured his knee. The news of the Rhodes Scholarship does not surprise his high school coach.

"He would say, 'Coach, I want to be a better dribbler.' You'd tell him and he would be there in the gym the next six months in a row," said Doug Mitchell. "He obviously approached his academics the same way."

Finkton says his success at Harvard can be traced back to the foundation laid at North Central.

"In college, I have met kids from Andover and the top high schools in the country and I feel like I was equally prepared as anyone else," he said.

His mom made sure of that. Stephanie Finkton works at the customer service desk at Methodist Hospital, helping folks get where they need to be. As you might expect, she's pretty good at it.

A senior neurobiology major, Finkton has a secondary concentration in African American studies and directed and co-founded a sustainable water delivery system for a community in Ghana. The senior has also done research in France in infant cognition.

Finkton will begin his studies in England in October.

According to a release from the Rhodes Trust, the criteria for the award were laid down in the will of Cecil Rhodes, a British philanthropist and African colonial pioneer.

"These criteria are high academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness, respect for others, potential for leadership, and physical vigor," the release read.

The scholarships were created in 1902, with the first students entering Oxford two years later. U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) was also a Rhodes Scholar.

The Rhodes Trust