On Sunday, The Rhodes Trust announced the 32 men and women chosen for post-graduate studies at Oxford University in England. The latest group of U.S. Rhodes scholars includes 10 African Americans — the most ever in a single Rhodes class — as well as a transgender man and four students from colleges that had never had received the honor before.
The Rhodes Scholarship, named after the British mining magnate and South African politician Cecil John Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford. It is widely considered to be one of the world’s most prestigious scholarships.
The Rhodes Scholarships were established after the death of Cecil Rhodes, who dreamed of improving the world through the diffusion of leaders motivated to serve their contemporaries, trained in the contemplative life of the mind, and broadened by their acquaintance with one another and by their exposure to cultures different from their own. Mr. Rhodes hoped that his plan of bringing able students from throughout the English-speaking world and beyond to study at Oxford University would aid in the promotion of international understanding and peace. Each year, 32 scholars from the United States are among more than 95 Rhodes Scholars worldwide who take up degree courses at Oxford University. The first U.S. Rhodes Scholars entered Oxford in 1904.
Mr. Rhodes’ Will contains four criteria by which prospective Rhodes Scholars are to be selected:
- literary and scholastic attainments;
- energy to use one’s talents to the full;
- truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship;
- moral force of character and instincts to lead, and to take an interest in one’s fellow beings.
The American Rhodes Scholar Class of 2018 was elected on November 18, 2017. These 32 outstanding students will commence their studies at Oxford in October 2018. They were selected from a pool of 866 candidates who had been nominated by their colleges and universities. They will now complete their applications to begin courses at Oxford next year, widely across the University’s academic disciplines.
The scholarships are worth about $68,000 per year, according to the Rhodes Trust.
Please see links below for the list of winners and short biographies:
List of Winners | Profiles of Winners | Class of 2018 Photos