Oxford University’s All Soul’s College.
The 2020 Rhodes Scholars have been announced, and they include 32 scholars from America who were selected from 963 students endorsed by 298 different colleges. The scholars will begin their studies at the University of Oxford next October, joining recipients from more than 60 other countries.
Each year on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the Rhodes Trust announces the names of the newest Rhodes Scholarship winners from the United States. The award, considered to be the most prestigious for American college graduates, was established in 1903, with the first class of scholars beginning their Oxford studies in 1904.
The scholarships average about $70,000 per year and cover all expenses for two or three (in some cases, four) years of graduate study. Recipients are free to study the full range of disciplines offered at Oxford, including life sciences, arts and humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the physical sciences.
The selection criteria fall into four broad categories: academic excellence (e.g, a GPA of at least 3.7); the energy to use one’s talents to the fullest; attributes such as truth, courage, kindness, and devotion to duty; and the moral force of character and instincts to lead. All shortlisted candidates are also personally interviewed.
Including this year’s recipients, 3,516 Americans have been awarded Rhodes Scholarships, representing 324 different colleges and universities. Here is a summary of the 2020 class, highlighted -as in the past three years – by its remarkable diversity.
Harvard had the most winners, with five. It was followed by Yale and MIT, each with four scholars. Two winners came from Princeton. The remaining 17 scholars were selected from different schools, with the University of Connecticut having its first Rhodes Scholar ever. The other schools were University of Pennsylvania, the U.S. Military Academy, University of Virginia, Duke, Vanderbilt, University of Mississippi, Notre Dame, Northeastern, The Ohio State University, Michigan State University, Washington and Lee, University of Tennessee, University of Colorado, Stanford, Brown, and the University of Oklahoma.
About half of the winners were first-generation Americans, continuing the trend of recent years. According to the official press release, “the class overall is majority-minority… One is the first transgender woman elected to a Rhodes Scholarship; two other Scholars-elect are non-binary.”
Here are a few outstanding examples of the 2020 Rhodes class:
Kristine E. Guillaume, the daughter of immigrants, is a senior at Harvard, majoring in History and Literature, and in African and African American Studies. She is the first black woman President of the Harvard Crimson.
Wanjiku (Wawa) N. Gatheru is the first Rhodes Scholar ever from the University of Connecticut. She majored in Environmental Studies, with minors in Global Studies and Urban and Community Studies. She is a first-generation American of Kenyan descent. At Oxford, she plans to do a master’s degree in Nature, Society and Environmental Governance, and a master’s degree in Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation.
Liana Wang is a senior at Yale University majoring in Economics. Her research examines inequality in the United States, and the impact of the tax and welfare system in addressing inequality. She was the first undergraduate co- director of the Lowenstein Human Rights Project, a human rights law clinic at Yale, and has worked with asylum-seekers. An award-winning columnist at the Yale Daily News. Liana is the first in her family to attend college.
Kritika Singh, a senior at Northeastern University, majored in bioengineering. She is founder and CEO of Malaria Free World, and has worked in research labs at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. She already holds one patent and founded the Northeastern University Global Health Initiative. At Oxford, she plans to do a D.Phil. in biomedical sciences.
Cyrus V. Reza is a senior at Stanford University, majoring in Classics and Mathematics, and pursuing an M.A. in International Policy. The son of Iranian and Kurdish refugees, he serves as a senior research assistant to former National Security Adviser, H.R. McMaster. He is also a squad leader in the Naval ROTC and is training to serve as a Navy SEAL. He plans to obtain a D.Phil. in Oriental Studies at Oxford.
Leanne K.M. Ho is a senior English major at the University of Oklahoma, where she researched the impact of storytelling on social distancing from LGBTQ people. Leanne led a successful effort to address gendered campus awards at the University of Oklahoma; she was recently named the first-ever Big Non-Binary Person on Campus. At Oxford, Leanne plans a M.Sc. in Medical Anthropology and a M.Sc. in Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation.
In comparison to prior years, the 2020 class appears to be especially strong in the humanities and social sciences, and it fulfills the Rhodes tradition of selecting scholars who show great leadership promise. In the words of Elliot Gerson, the American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, “we seek outstanding young people of intellect, character, leadership, and commitment to service. These basic characteristics are directed at fulfilling Mr. Rhodes’s hopes that the Rhodes Scholars would make an important and positive contribution throughout the world. In Rhodes’s words, his Scholars should ‘esteem the performance of public duties as their highest aim.'”
