By Jimmy Robertson

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In many ways, Martha Blakely exemplifies the typical student-athlete.

She loves her sport (tennis) and constantly strives to become better at it. She excels in the classroom and dreams big dreams for her future. She loves to attend football games. She rarely turns down an opportunity to volunteer. She even occasionally goes downtown with her friends to hang out.

She’s not exactly a household name in Hokie Nation at the moment, but this Saturday, Martha Blakely has an opportunity to make history.

She’s one step away from becoming a Rhodes scholar – and she would become the first female Virginia Tech student to be named one and just the third overall, joining Bill Lewis (1963) and Mark Embree (1996).

Blakely, a senior from Reading, Pa., left Thursday for Philadelphia, the site of her final interview. She’ll be one of 13 candidates in her district to be interviewed on Saturday at the National Constitution Center in downtown Philadelphia.

A committee of 6-8 people interviews all candidates individually for 20 minutes and then conducts follow-up interviews, if necessary. At some point Saturday afternoon, Blakely finds out if she is one of the two in her district to be selected for the Rhodes Scholarship, which pays for students to pursue a master’s degree, a research degree or a second undergraduate degree at prestigious University of Oxford in Oxford, England.

“I think it would be awesome to study and really excel with other people who are trying to find their little change in the world,” Blakely said. “Maybe I can help them or impact them, so I’m really excited for this weekend. I’m trying to enjoy it for what it is. I don’t know anyone who has interviewed for a Rhodes Scholarship, so I feel really honored just for that.”

For Blakely, who won the 2010 Skelton Award – the top honor handed out by the athletics department – the road to the Rhodes basically began following a conversation with a friend two years ago at Hillcrest Hall on Tech’s campus in which she and her friend started discussing their futures.

“We talked about things we were interested in and passions we had and how everything in our lives comes to a certain point,” she said. “Then it’s like, ‘Where am I going? I have all these traits and abilities. What does that amount to?’

“He just offhandedly said, ‘Have you thought about the Rhodes Scholarship?’ Of course, I had heard about it. It’s prestigious. That’s when the seed kind of started.”

The process actually starts at the local level, and Blakely applied in the summer with hopes of being nominated by Virginia Tech. Her grades were certainly strong – she is in the honors program at Tech with a 3.96 grade-point average (GPA). She majors in both chemistry and biochemistry, with a minor in math.

She submitted her transcript, a resumé, eight letters of recommendation (five by professors) and a 1,000-word personal statement in which she wrote multiple versions after discussions with a variety of faculty members about its content.

She then went through on-campus interviews in September. A panel of five Virginia Tech faculty members conducts these interviews among a small group of candidates and then chooses one for nomination. A regional panel of former Rhodes scholars, professors, scientists, journalists and or distinguished professionals then selects who gets invited for a regional interview.

Blakely finds herself at this point. Under the Rhodes guidelines, states are grouped into “districts,” and there are 16 districts. Two from each district receive the Rhodes Scholarship annually – 32 in all.

Interestingly, the location of the district interviews makes for a homecoming for Blakely. Though her family now lives in Reading, Pa., she was born in Bryn Mawr, outside of Philadelphia, and is one of four daughters born to Drs. Thomas and Pamela Blakely. Her parents, faculty fellows at the University of Pennsylvania, both teach, with her dad teaching at Penn State Berks and her mom at Reading Area Community College (and also a class at Penn).

Also, the location marks the site of where Blakely became aware of a cool profession that eventually morphed into what she wants to do for the rest of her life. In high school, she injured her wrist and underwent surgery at the Philadelphia Hand Center. On one of her visits, she ran into Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Chase Utley and while that certainly provoked some emotion, her conversation with Dr. Randall Culp, her surgeon, sparked her desire ultimately to become an orthopedic surgeon and a biomaterials researcher. She wants to make biodegradable implants for orthopedic surgery.

“I had wrist surgery, and that prompted this,” she said. “I had an implant and then my tendon started to tear around the implant. Then I had to have a second surgery to take out the implant.

“But I think this goes past athletics. People already get surgery. People in rural America can’t see a doctor every day after surgery, so let’s eliminate the rehab, and you can do that by having an implant that degrades over a period of time. So you’re getting better as you go on instead of having to go to a doctor’s office every day.

“Without athletics, I wouldn’t have this amazing clarity in my professional life, and that’s amazing to me. I wouldn’t have this amazing idea and passion about something. I think that’s really cool.”

Her attempt at a Rhodes Scholarship has come with some sacrifices. For starters, she had planned her engagement party for this weekend. She and her longtime boyfriend got engaged this past summer. But arguably the bigger sacrifice comes in missing the Hokies’ final home football game of the 2011 season.

“Oh my gosh, yes, of course,” she said when asked if she went to football games. “I’m missing my last home game. I’ll be watching it on TV and yelling. I’d say I’m pretty normal in that regard.”

But for her, the Rhodes Scholarship would only be a means to an end. It would be one way to carry out her dream. But there are other ways in the event she doesn’t get it.

“In the back of my mind, I guess I was thinking, ‘You’re not going to get that far. It’s a great thing to go for, but you’re not going to get that far,’” she said. “You have to have confidence in yourself, and I didn’t expect to lose. It’s like sports. You don’t go into it thinking, ‘I don’t want to win this.’

“But the end goal is not winning the scholarship. The end goal for me is this clarity of mind that comes with my passion. If I don’t get this scholarship, I’m still going to make this [making biodegradable implants] happen or help someone make this happen. It’s about finding what makes your heart beat and what you think about before falling asleep. That’s what you should be going for.”

For updates on Virginia Tech women's tennis, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_WTennis).

For updates on the Hokies, follow Jimmy Robertson on Twitter (@jrobIHS).