Northwestern University Athletics
Friday Feature: Barham Earns Prestigious Carnegie Fellowship
4/8/2016 6:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country & Track
Like so many Northwestern student-athletes, it was Elena Barham's future teammates that sealed the decision to spend her college career in Evanston.
"I was just really impressed with how dynamic the team was, people competing at a really high level with running and really into school," said Barham, a senior on the Wildcats cross country team. "I felt like that kind of team environment could challenge both aspects of me, and bring out the best in both, and I really wanted that."
As is the case with most rookies adjusting to a new place and a new pace, the start of Barham's competitive career in college was not a perfect process.
"I think freshman year most people tend to race like a chicken-with-your-head-cut-off. In high school, if I had a bad day I wound up fourth. Here if you have a bad day you're 400th. It's a very different playing field. Getting that into your head, and into your ego, and getting yourself under control, that was probably my first year or two here."
Three years later, the Madison, Wisconsin, native is a senior and has taken her performance to a new level, leading by example.
"Since I arrived on campus in July, Elena has been consistent and driven," said Wildcats head coach 'AHavahla Haynes. "She has been at practice everyday ready to work hard and without complaint."
Barham was unquestionably Northwestern's pacesetter during the 2015 cross country campaign, running the Wildcats fastest times of the season at both the 5K and 6K distances.
"I fell short of two of my personal goals, which were to be Top-25 in the Big Ten, and to make All-Region. But, at the same time, I ran the best times I've run, and I was way more consistent than I've ever been in cross country."
Last weekend at the San Francisco Distance Carnival, the opening event of Northwestern's outdoor track season, Barham set a personal record by 17 seconds in the 10,000m event but was not satisfied.
"I had an ok race in San Francisco, I was hoping to PR by a little bit more. It was good progress, but I think my fitness was even a little bit better than that."
The senior attributes many of the gains realized this season to her mind, rather than her body.
"Between last year and this year, I've tried to be more prepared mentally for competition so by the time I'm on the starting line I've got my head around what I want to do. At this level everyone has good fitness, so a lot of it comes down to be able to stay calm, not panic, execute and run intelligently. A lot of my improvement over the course of this year has been due to run more intelligently."
Barham's athletic development over the last four years has mirrored her development academically.
"This school will be as dynamic as you want to be. I think that's partially because of the quarter system, and the flexibility it offers. The student body here is super-energized and pretty diverse ideologically. I think I would have been hard-pressed to find another environment that could challenge me in so many different ways. What I've found at Northwestern is that this environment really will give you back what you put into it. I mean that in terms of the support I've received from teammates, but also coaches and professors and everyone that works here. Everyone wants to help you, you just need to make it clear that you're interested in being helped, and being taught."
Wildcats assistant coach Audrey Huth has a unique bifurcated perspective on Barham.
"I feel incredibly fortunate to have gotten to know Elena as one of her teammates and now as one of her coaches," said Huth, a 2013 Northwestern alum. "She has worked so hard the last four years to get to where she is running now and throughout it all has upheld one of the highest grade-point-averages on the team. This year she has even been writing two honors theses."
Two honors theses?
"I came in as a political science and economics major," laughs Barham. "Loved the political science…kind of liked the econ. So I ended up switching that to philosophy."
"Elena is dedicated to becoming the best she can be in whatever she is involved in," Huth continued. "Because of that I know she is going to do great things in the future."
The future for Barham is in Washington, D.C., where in August she will begin as a Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace. Each year the endowment offers approximately 10-12 one-year fellowships to uniquely qualified graduating seniors, selected from a pool of nominees representing almost 400 colleges and universities. Barham is the first Northwestern student to earn the honor since 2001.
"I'm going to be a research assistant for their Rule Of Law program, reporting mostly to two women named Sarah Chayes and Rachel Kleinfield."
Chayes previously served as a special adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and is an expert in South Asia policy, kleptocracy and anticorruption, and civil-military relations. She is working on correlations between acute public corruption and the rise of militant extremism.
"When you have really corrupt states," Barham explains, "they tend to be more violent, and it's often because people don't have any good recourse in terms of justice. You can't go to the courts because they're being paid off, you can't go to your local police officer because he's going to ask for a cut. [Chayes] just published a book [Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security] about how really corrupt states work as, essentially, vertically integrated gangs. Take Saudi Arabia, for example. When you pay a road toll, and the attendant pockets part of it, he kicks back to his manager so he can get away with it, who kicks back to his manager, and so on. There are states where that goes all the way up to the Secretary of the Interior. I'll be contributing to a series of articles that she's going to publish as promotion for this book."
Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld focuses on issues of rule of law, security, and governance in post-conflict countries, fragile states, and states in transition. She was named one of the top 40 Under 40 Political Leaders in America by Time magazine in 2010 and, in 2011, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton appointed her to the Foreign Affairs Policy Board.
"Rachel Kleinfeld is writing a book right now about transitional states," says Barham. "When you have a really violent state where the government doesn't have great control, and it's trying to eventually democratize, you'll sometimes need a middle ground that isn't a democratic regime. A stable state to get violence levels down, get things more in control, before your can transition. So I'll be contributing to that book as well."
"The people she gets the opportunity to do research with are going to be ecstatic to have her intelligence and ambition," said Haynes. "She is exactly what Northwestern is about, the type of individuals who are high achieving in all endeavors."
Barham has a month between graduation in June, and her August start date in the nation's capital. So, an extended vacation in July?
"I'm going to try and take the GRE and start applying to PhD programs," says the senior, who isn't yet certain where she'd like to attend graduate school. "I'll have to see how my research interests change this year. Where I'm motivated to go might change depending on who I want to work with, or if it turns out I'm interested in things I didn't think I was interested in."
Nearing the end of her undergraduate journey, Barham reflects on the way her college career has unfolded.
"This has just been the coolest experience. There's really no other way to say it."
"I was just really impressed with how dynamic the team was, people competing at a really high level with running and really into school," said Barham, a senior on the Wildcats cross country team. "I felt like that kind of team environment could challenge both aspects of me, and bring out the best in both, and I really wanted that."
As is the case with most rookies adjusting to a new place and a new pace, the start of Barham's competitive career in college was not a perfect process.
"I think freshman year most people tend to race like a chicken-with-your-head-cut-off. In high school, if I had a bad day I wound up fourth. Here if you have a bad day you're 400th. It's a very different playing field. Getting that into your head, and into your ego, and getting yourself under control, that was probably my first year or two here."
Three years later, the Madison, Wisconsin, native is a senior and has taken her performance to a new level, leading by example.
"Since I arrived on campus in July, Elena has been consistent and driven," said Wildcats head coach 'AHavahla Haynes. "She has been at practice everyday ready to work hard and without complaint."
Barham was unquestionably Northwestern's pacesetter during the 2015 cross country campaign, running the Wildcats fastest times of the season at both the 5K and 6K distances.
"I fell short of two of my personal goals, which were to be Top-25 in the Big Ten, and to make All-Region. But, at the same time, I ran the best times I've run, and I was way more consistent than I've ever been in cross country."
Last weekend at the San Francisco Distance Carnival, the opening event of Northwestern's outdoor track season, Barham set a personal record by 17 seconds in the 10,000m event but was not satisfied.
"I had an ok race in San Francisco, I was hoping to PR by a little bit more. It was good progress, but I think my fitness was even a little bit better than that."
The senior attributes many of the gains realized this season to her mind, rather than her body.
"Between last year and this year, I've tried to be more prepared mentally for competition so by the time I'm on the starting line I've got my head around what I want to do. At this level everyone has good fitness, so a lot of it comes down to be able to stay calm, not panic, execute and run intelligently. A lot of my improvement over the course of this year has been due to run more intelligently."
Barham's athletic development over the last four years has mirrored her development academically.
"This school will be as dynamic as you want to be. I think that's partially because of the quarter system, and the flexibility it offers. The student body here is super-energized and pretty diverse ideologically. I think I would have been hard-pressed to find another environment that could challenge me in so many different ways. What I've found at Northwestern is that this environment really will give you back what you put into it. I mean that in terms of the support I've received from teammates, but also coaches and professors and everyone that works here. Everyone wants to help you, you just need to make it clear that you're interested in being helped, and being taught."
Wildcats assistant coach Audrey Huth has a unique bifurcated perspective on Barham.
"I feel incredibly fortunate to have gotten to know Elena as one of her teammates and now as one of her coaches," said Huth, a 2013 Northwestern alum. "She has worked so hard the last four years to get to where she is running now and throughout it all has upheld one of the highest grade-point-averages on the team. This year she has even been writing two honors theses."
Two honors theses?
"I came in as a political science and economics major," laughs Barham. "Loved the political science…kind of liked the econ. So I ended up switching that to philosophy."
"Elena is dedicated to becoming the best she can be in whatever she is involved in," Huth continued. "Because of that I know she is going to do great things in the future."
The future for Barham is in Washington, D.C., where in August she will begin as a Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace. Each year the endowment offers approximately 10-12 one-year fellowships to uniquely qualified graduating seniors, selected from a pool of nominees representing almost 400 colleges and universities. Barham is the first Northwestern student to earn the honor since 2001.
"I'm going to be a research assistant for their Rule Of Law program, reporting mostly to two women named Sarah Chayes and Rachel Kleinfield."
Chayes previously served as a special adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and is an expert in South Asia policy, kleptocracy and anticorruption, and civil-military relations. She is working on correlations between acute public corruption and the rise of militant extremism.
"When you have really corrupt states," Barham explains, "they tend to be more violent, and it's often because people don't have any good recourse in terms of justice. You can't go to the courts because they're being paid off, you can't go to your local police officer because he's going to ask for a cut. [Chayes] just published a book [Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security] about how really corrupt states work as, essentially, vertically integrated gangs. Take Saudi Arabia, for example. When you pay a road toll, and the attendant pockets part of it, he kicks back to his manager so he can get away with it, who kicks back to his manager, and so on. There are states where that goes all the way up to the Secretary of the Interior. I'll be contributing to a series of articles that she's going to publish as promotion for this book."
Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld focuses on issues of rule of law, security, and governance in post-conflict countries, fragile states, and states in transition. She was named one of the top 40 Under 40 Political Leaders in America by Time magazine in 2010 and, in 2011, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton appointed her to the Foreign Affairs Policy Board.
"Rachel Kleinfeld is writing a book right now about transitional states," says Barham. "When you have a really violent state where the government doesn't have great control, and it's trying to eventually democratize, you'll sometimes need a middle ground that isn't a democratic regime. A stable state to get violence levels down, get things more in control, before your can transition. So I'll be contributing to that book as well."
"The people she gets the opportunity to do research with are going to be ecstatic to have her intelligence and ambition," said Haynes. "She is exactly what Northwestern is about, the type of individuals who are high achieving in all endeavors."
Barham has a month between graduation in June, and her August start date in the nation's capital. So, an extended vacation in July?
"I'm going to try and take the GRE and start applying to PhD programs," says the senior, who isn't yet certain where she'd like to attend graduate school. "I'll have to see how my research interests change this year. Where I'm motivated to go might change depending on who I want to work with, or if it turns out I'm interested in things I didn't think I was interested in."
Nearing the end of her undergraduate journey, Barham reflects on the way her college career has unfolded.
"This has just been the coolest experience. There's really no other way to say it."
••••••
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