Masiello, a 1999 Saratoga High School graduate and 2003 Wellesley College graduate, was recently named a Rhodes Scholar. While her parents, Ralph and Suzanne Masiello, moved from Saratoga to Solebury, Pa., when she was in college, Masiello said she still considers Saratoga her "home."

Karen Hyde, an assistant principal at Saratoga High, said she couldn't be more proud to have another student from the school earn this honor. And Masiello said she couldn't resist dropping Hyde an email to share the good news.

"Karen Hyde is an amazing woman," said Masiello, during a phone interview. "She's just a caring woman. She is always there for her students."

Masiello said she follows in the footsteps of 1999 Saratoga High graduate Ankur Luthra, who won the 2002 Rhodes Scholar award.

At age 23, Masiello is also the ninth Rhodes Scholar from Wellesley College to win the prestigious honor since women were allowed to apply for the scholarship, starting in 1976. Wellesley College is a private, liberal arts college located in Wellesley, Mass., just 13 miles west of Boston.

She is also one of 32 Rhodes Scholars chosen from throughout the United States this year for the award. The program, which began in 1902 after the death of Cecil Rhodes, was established to gather exceptional students from around the world in an attempt to promote "international understanding and peace." In addition to the 32 American scholars, an additional group of scholars are selected from throughout the world, for a total of approximately 95 scholars selected worldwide every year.

With a computer science major and economics minor from Wellesley, Masiello said she is now in her second year of pursuing graduate studies in the technology and policy program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At MIT, Masiello is studying the economic and technical aspects of authentication technologies and their impacts on security.

"The Rhodes is an incredible honor and opportunity," said Masiello. "I feel very fortunate to have been awarded this scholarship that will allow me to build on work that I began at Wellesley and have continued at MIT. I am certainly most grateful to the many professors and classmates at Wellesley who challenged and inspired me throughout college and who continue today to offer encouragement and guidance."

In her honors thesis at Wellesley, Masiello argued that biometric surveillance threatens to erode anonymity, even though the technology does not function very well.

In addition to her academic work, Masiello has excelled outside the classroom environment. She was a four-time All-American field hockey player, a standout lacrosse player, a first-year mentor and a student liaison to Wellesley's committee on faculty appointments.

Masiello continues to use athletics as a vehicle for contributing to her community. Last year, she founded Team Up 4 Education, a volunteer organization for mentoring high school athletes at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School in Cambridge. She also coaches high school field hockey players in the U.S. Field Hockey Olympic Development Program.

The Rhodes scholarship, at approximately $35,000 per year, will support Masiello's study for two years at the University of Oxford. Masiello said she leaves for Oxford in October 2005. There, she plans to study economics and interact with researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute, a multi-disciplinary research center examining the technical, economic, social, political and legal implications of the Internet.

"I just see it as an amazing opportunity to study at that kind of an institution," Masiello said. "I'm just excited about it."

Masiello also applied for the award two years ago, through the intensive three-stage application process as a senior in college, but didn't win. This time around, Betsey said she had a better idea of what to expect.

"They tell you right there. They announce the winners right there on the spot," Masiello said. "I had to drive down to Pennsylvania afterwards to tell my parents."

Masiello said following her study at Oxford, she plans to go into public service, in technology management and information technology policy with the government.