When Isabel Rancu learned she was a finalist for the prestigious Marshall Scholarship last fall, the Yale community rallied around her.
"The fall semester was incredibly chaotic," recalls Rancu, a senior from South Carolina whose love of science brought her to Yale. "I was a new counselor for first-year students, and I was applying for fellowships at the same time. When I heard I was a finalist, I just felt overwhelmed."
That's when the Yale community showed up for her - sometimes, in surprising ways.
The first-year students Rancu had been mentoring as a First Year Counselor at Pauli Murray College began mentoring her. "They were spit-firing back at me the things I tell them before their exams," Rancu recalls. "'You're going to be great.' 'You're going to do so well.' And I even heard one of my favorites: 'Even if you don't succeed, no one can take away the hard work you put in to get here.'"
