Few American college students in the mid-nineteen-nineties showed as much promise as Rachel Hall. In 1994, Glamour named her one of its Top 10 College Women. “Rachel Hall is a Truman Scholar, former White House intern, licensed massage therapist, onetime Virgin Islands lifeguard, varsity rower and chair of the United Nations’ Global Federation Youth Cabinet,” the magazine wrote. “A double major in Japanese and international relations, Hall recently transferred from UC-Davis to Stanford University. Her future plans include a graduate degree in Japanese and a career in international relations.” The following year, Stanford endorsed Hall’s application for a Rhodes scholarship. Hall’s grades at both schools were “literally perfect,” Peter Stansky, a history professor and the chairman of Stanford’s Rhodes panel, wrote. “Ms. Hall is a very polished and mature candidate who has had a wide variety of experiences from which she has very intelligently managed to learn prodigious amounts.” Hall won the Rhodes.