Courtesy of Drew Magazine. Article originally appeared in the Winter 1999 edition, by Lynn Peck Rutan
Dena Pedynowski C'99 laughs at herself for sometimes "talking in sound bites." The habit stems from the globetrotter's love of pithy phrases and sayings. She coins some, others she picks up during her travels. Once home, she doesn't allow these verbal souvenirs to gather dust. Rather, Pedynowski draws on them constantly to shape her conversations, her writings, and her life.
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Even as she was completing her college course requirements in just three years, earning a 3.98 G.P.A and a Phi Beta Kappa key in the process, drewDrew's first Rhodes scholar took time to explore the Amazon in a dug out canoe, bringing back photographs that are now bing considered for exhibition by the Smithsonian. In between semesters, she snow-shoed through the -10 degree wintery wilds of Montana, surveying wolf pack movements and learning about the Endangered Species Act. In Japan as a Rotary Club International student ambassador, she met with national leaders and lived in a Buddhist temple.
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As her classmates cross Mead's back porch on graduation day, Pedynowski expects to be crossing the HimalaysHimalayas, on yet another quest for knowledge. No, she won't mind missing the ceremony. After all, it's not the diploma that's important.
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