All My Children: Rudy's Kids Tell All

Neil L. Rudenstine and Angelica Z. Rudenstine are by now familiar figures to the newspaper-reading public. The former Princeton provost and his art-historian wife have been described in nearly every major paper in the country.

Less, however, has been said about the other members of the Rudenstine family. The three Rudenstine children all grew up in Princeton, N.J. and attended Princeton High School while their father administrated the local university. Yet despite these shared early roots, they have all followed very different paths since then.

Antonia M. Rudenstine, 25, lives in Cambridge and teaches social studies at Quincy High School. After graduating from Oberlin College, where she majored in political science and law and society, Antonia earned her teaching certificate at Harvard's Graduate School of Education.

Working with special education and English-as-a-second-language students this year has been challenging but rewarding, Antonia says. But she has just been laid off because of recession-time budget cuts and will have to look for new work this summer. "The chances that they're going to be rehiring me are not good," she says.

Nicholas D. Rudenstine, 23, majored in history at Princeton and is now employed as a financial analyst for Smith Barney in New York. Nick says he plans to stay at Smith Barney for at least another year, after which he may try to get some management experience. And he might eventually apply to business schools.

Asked if he would consider attending Harvard, Nick answers, "Sure, why not? It would be stranger for me to say, 'No, I'd never consider going to Harvard Business School.' I certainly wouldn't rule it out."

Sonya M. Rudenstine, 21, is a junior political science major at Stanford who is planning to write her senior thesis on the privatization of prisons. She plays lacrosse and sings in the Stanford University Choir.

Sonya plans to pursue her longtime interest in law by spending a year or two working in public service law after she graduates. Like her brother, Sonya says she may enter professional school after taking time off. But she will probably not apply to Harvard Law School. "It would just be weird," she says. "I'd rather go somewhere on my own."

Exchanging Perpectives

Neil Rudenstine is known for consulting with a wide range of people before he makes decisions. Apparently, it runs in the family. All three of his children say the close-knit Rudenstine clan stays in close contact, rapping on everything from academic politics to public education reform.

"It's really interesting to talk to him because I'm in a university as a student and he's on the other side," says Sonya, adding that she often has a different outlook on her classmates' criticisms of university actions. "He asks me for my perspective too," she says.

Nick says his father frequently talks about his work with members of his family. "Recently we've discussed a lot of things about issues he knows he's going to be facing at Harvard," Nick says. For instance, he says, he and his father have chatted about academic debates such as that sparked when Stanford eliminated its Western Civilization requirements.

Antonia says she often discusses the state of public education with her father. "The funny thing is, we sort of got interested in public education at around the same time," she says, explaining that his interest increased when he started working on the Mellon Foundation's education grants.

The two talk about everything from problems she encounters in her work to their ideas about improving public schools. "I think that my dad is sort of a seasoned moderate compared to me," she says. "Principally we have the same ideas about teaching kids, but we differ somewhat on political issues. I tend to say, 'We need to tear it all down and start over again,' and he says, 'No, you don't really need to do that.'"

The Right Decision

Neil Rudenstine's children say they are "really excited" about their father's career move. "I think it's great," Nick says. "I think he definitely made the right decision, I don't know about for Harvard, but definitely for himself."

And they all expect him to thrive in the post. "His job [at the Mellon Foundation] was demanding and he liked it a lot, but he wasn't in a big university community, and I think he missed that," says Sonya.

Antonia says that though there are times when she worries about her father taking on such a demanding job, she is sure he'll be able to handle it. "I'm really proud of him," she says.

But she admits she was surprised when her coworkers started congratulating her on her father's appointment. "I think I don't really get how big it is," she says. "Because he's just my dad."