Daniel Lesman has volunteered his time, since 2017, at the Star House of Columbus where he provides tutoring and educational resources to underprivileged students through Pass the Class, a nonprofit he cofounded. Credit: Courtesy of Daniel Lesman
Unlike lightning, the Rhodes Scholarship can strike the same place twice — or, in the case of Ohio State, three times in as many years.
Daniel Lesman, a fourth-year in biomedical science, was named one of 32 American 2021 Rhodes Scholars Nov. 21. Lesman follows Ohio State alumni Henry Wu, a 2020 recipient, and Laila Ujayli, a 2019 recipient.
“I had known what the Rhodes was for a long time, just casually, just in the news since high school,” Lesman said. “I never thought that I would be trying to compete for it or really thought that I would be competitive for it.”
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international scholarship program first awarded in 1902 that invites students from around the world to study at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. According to the scholarship website, Rhodes Scholars are selected based on four criteria: academic excellence; mastery of a sport, instrument, or other talent; devotion to truth, duty, sympathy and fellowship; and moral force of character and strong leadership.
Lesman, a native of Dublin, Ohio, was one of six Ohio State students nominated for the scholarship by the university in July. At the end of October, he was one of 16 finalists from Ohio and Illinois to sit before a seven-judge panel for a 25-minute virtual interview.
In a Nov. 22 press release, University President Kristina M. Johnson congratulated Lesman on receiving the highly selective award.
“His commitment to research and service beyond self reflects the values of our university community and we are thrilled to see Daniel receive this well-deserved honor,” Johnson said.
Lesman commitment to service led to his co-founding of a nonprofit called Pass the Class in 2017, which provides tutoring opportunities to underprivileged youth.
Lesman said he and co-founder and Ohio State alumnus Andrew Hu were inspired to create Pass the Class after volunteering at the Star House, a center for at-risk youth located near Ohio State. He said he and Hu were surprised that there was no tutoring program at the center.
“I personally wanted to do something with volunteering that I felt I was good at or as a way to give back that I felt was more meaningful,” Lesman said. “I was looking for ways to tutor people because I thought education was a skill of mine, something I want to help people with.”
Lesman said at first, he and Hu were the only tutors, and they tutored three days a week. But as the amount of students and tutors grew, they filed for nonprofit status in order to build community partnerships and apply for grants.
Over time, Lesman and Hu expanded to tutoring both homeless and at-risk students and eventually decided to expand the program to other universities, including Virginia Commonwealth University and Johns Hopkins University.
“Since we’ve already overcome the learning curve, it seemed like expansion was a natural next step because other students at other universities who would be interested in tutoring would not have to go through the same learning curve as us if they start as like a branch of our organization,” Lesman said.
Lesman said he looks forward to learning from the other Rhodes Scholars. According to the scholarship’s website, each year, 100 scholars are selected from 60 eligible countries.
Looking beyond Oxford, Lesman wants to pursue his doctorate in biomedical sciences while increasing access to labs and research for underprivileged youth — access he said he readily had in high school and wants to make available to all.
“Being able to figure out how to provide those sorts of opportunities to people less privileged than I is certainly a big goal of mine and something that I hope I can think about at Oxford,” he said.
