CAMBRIDGE, MA– Samarth Gupta of Acton, MA, and a Harvard University student who has lived most of his life in Massachusetts, is among the 32 Americans selected as Rhodes Scholars. Brief bios of all winners is included at the bottom of this article.
Gupta, who is concentrating in economics, plans to enter law school after Oxford studies focused on comparative social policy.The foreign excursion will be new for Samarth, who has spent most of his life in Massachusetts and has never been to Europe, but he’s not nervous, according to Harvard Gazette. “Going overseas is going to be thrilling,” he told Gazette.
Elliot F. Gerson, American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, on Saturday announced the names of the 32 Americans chosen as Rhodes Scholars representing the United States.
Gerson described this year’s class: “This year’s selections—independently elected by 16 committees around the country meeting simultaneously—reflects the rich diversity of America. It includes, among others, ten African-Americans, the most ever elected in a U.S. Rhodes class; African and Asian immigrants; other Asian, Muslim, and Latino Americans; an Alaskan Native (Aleut); a transgender man, the second self-acknowledged transgender Rhodes Scholar after Pema McLaughlin was elected last year; and four from colleges that have never before elected Rhodes Scholars in the 115 years of the United States Rhodes Scholarships (Hunter College, CUNY; Temple University; the University of Alaska Anchorage; and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. They plan to study a wide range of fields across the social sciences, biological and medical sciences, physical sciences and mathematics, and the humanities.”
Rhodes Scholarships provide all expenses for two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England and may allow funding in some instances for four years. Mr. Gerson called the Rhodes Scholarships, “the oldest and best known award for international study, and arguably the most famous academic award available to American college graduates.” They were created in 1902 by the Will of Cecil Rhodes, British philanthropist and African colonial pioneer, and are provided in partnership with the Second Century Founders, John McCall MacBain O.C. and The Atlantic Philanthropies, and many other generous benefactors. The first class of American Rhodes Scholars entered Oxford in 1904; those elected today will enter Oxford in October 2018.
Rhodes Scholars are chosen in a two-stage process. First, applicants must be endorsed by their college or university. This year more than 2,500 students sought their institution’s endorsement; 866 were endorsed by 299 different colleges and universities. Committees of Selection in each of 16 U.S. districts then invite the strongest applicants to appear before them for interview.
Applicants are chosen on the basis of the criteria set down in the Will of Cecil Rhodes. These criteria are first, academic excellence. This is a critical but only threshold condition. A Rhodes Scholar should also have great personal energy, ambition for impact, and an ability to work with others and to achieve one’s goals. In addition, a Rhodes Scholar should be committed to make a strong difference for good in the world, be concerned for the welfare of others, and be conscious of inequities. And finally Gerson said, “a Rhodes Scholar should show great promise of leadership. In short, we seek outstanding young men and women of intellect, character, leadership and commitment to service.” Gerson said “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.'”
Applicants in the United States may apply either through the state where they are legally resident or where they have attended college for at least two years. The district committees met separately, on Friday and Saturday, November 17 and 18, in cities across the country. Each district committee made a final selection of two Rhodes Scholars from the candidates of the state or states within the district. Two-hundred twenty-eight applicants from 100 different colleges and universities reached the final stage of the competition, including 17 that had never before had a student win a Rhodes Scholarship. Of the 100 institutions whose students reached the finalist stage in 2017, 27 had not endorsed any applicants in 2016.
The 32 Rhodes Scholars chosen from the United States will join an international group of Scholars chosen from more than 20 other jurisdictions (64 different countries) around the world. In addition to the 32 Americans, Scholars are also selected from Australia, Bermuda, Canada, China, the nations of the Commonwealth Caribbean, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Southern Africa (South Africa, plus Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia and Swaziland), Syria/Jordan/Lebanon/Palestine, the United Arab Emirates, West Africa (including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, the island of Saint Helena, Sierra Leone, São Tomé and Principe, and Togo), Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Approximately 100 Rhodes Scholars will be selected worldwide this year, usually including several who have attended American colleges and universities but who are not U.S. citizens and who have applied through their home country.
With the elections announced today, 3,452 Americans have won Rhodes Scholarships, representing 322 colleges and universities. Since 1976, women have been eligible to apply and 546 American women have now won the coveted scholarship. Nearly 2,000 American Rhodes Scholars are living in all parts of the U.S. and abroad.
The value of the Rhodes Scholarship varies depending on the academic field and the degree (B.A., master’s, doctoral) chosen. The Rhodes Trust pays all college and university fees, provides a stipend to cover necessary expenses while in residence in Oxford as well as during vacations, and transportation to and from England. The total value of the Scholarship averages approximately US$68,000 per year, and up to as much as approximately US$250,000 for Scholars who remain at Oxford for four years in certain departments. The full list of the newly elected United States Rhodes Scholars, with the states from which they were chosen, their home towns, and their American colleges or universities, follows.
Brief bios of winners:
DISTRICT 1 Massachusetts Tania N. Fabo, Saugus, is a senior at Harvard College where she concentrates in Human Development and Regenerative Biology. Born in Germany of Cameroonian parents, an immigrant to the U.S., she has done cancer research throughout her college career, including at Harvard, the University of Michigan, and in a biotech company. Tania created and co- directed the first annual Black Health Matters Conference at Harvard, is president of the Harvard Society of Black Scientists and Engineers, and is active with Kuumba and A Capella singing groups. She believes race “is the emperor of all maladies, disadvantaging groups and limiting their ability to achieve their full health potential.” Tania will do the M.Sc. by research in Oncology at Oxford.
Massachusetts Samarth Gupta, Acton, is a Harvard senior concentrating in Economics. A Truman Scholar, his senior thesis explores how increased access to health care contributes to community housing stability. He immigrated to the United States from India with his family when he was three. He has done extensive research on the causes and consequences of eviction on individual and community health, interned with the City of Boston Office of Housing Stability and with the White House Council of Economic Advisors. Samarth is captain of the Harvard College Running Club, was one of two students on the Harvard General Education Standing Committee, and was a staff writer for the Harvard Political Review. He intends to do the M.Sc. in Comparative Social Policy at Oxford.
DISTRICT 2 New Jersey
Christopher J. D’Urso, Colts Neck, is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania where he will receive a B.A. in International Relations as well as a Masters in Public Administration through the University’s Fels Institute of Government. He has a perfect grade point average in both programs. Christopher cares deeply about consumer protection and testified before Congress in 2014 on revamping country of origin labeling laws. He is also the founding President of “Penn CASE,” a community service organization designed to provide consumer assistance, support, and education to Philadelphia residents and Penn students. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Sigma Iota Rho’s
Journal of International Relations and was selected by the University to represent the student body on the University’s Task Force on Safe and Responsible Campus Community. Christopher will read for an M.Sc. in Criminology and Criminal Justice at Oxford.
New Jersey
Jordan D. Thomas, Newark, is a senior at Princeton University where he is majoring at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and double minoring in Portuguese Language and Culture and African-American Studies. He was a Fulbright Summer Institute Fellow at the University of Bristol where he studied the culture, heritage, and history of the U.K. He interned at the Office for Civil Rights’ Program Legal Group at the U.S.
Department of Education as part of the Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative. At Princeton, Jordan was elected to be the co-chair of the community house executive board, where he oversees nine student-driven education projects to support under-represented youth in academic success. Jordan plans to study for an M.Phil. in Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation at Oxford.
DISTRICT 3 New York Thamara V. Jean, Brooklyn, is a senior at the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College of the City University of New York, where she is Hunter’s first Rhodes Scholar. She majors in Political Science and Media Analysis and Criticism. She completed her senior thesis in her junior year on the Black Lives Matter movement which was subsequently published in The Journal of Politics and Society. She followed this with research in the Harvard African-American Studies Department on black nationalism in the 1960s. Thamara is especially interested in the dialectic between Afro-pessimism and Black optimism and how that shapes African-American political thought. Her interest as a social activist is to change destructive societal narratives and philosophical traditions that bring about barriers rather than common understanding. She has worked at Democracy Works and Generation Citizen, and was a producer at the CUNY Film Festival. Thamara will do the M.Phil. in Political Theory at Oxford.
New York Daniel H. Judt, Manhattan, is a Yale College senior who will graduate next month with a major in History. His thesis is about how the Socialist movement influenced conservative policies in the American South. He has won major Yale prizes and honors in journalism, nonfiction writing, English, and the humanities. He co-founded and is editor-in-chief of Brink, a book review journal inspired by the New York Review of Books, where he interned with the late Robert Silvers. He has written for The Nation, the Yale Politic, The New York Times, and many other publications. Daniel has taught literature, French, and English to high school students in New Haven, prison inmates, and French adult refugees in Paris. He aspires to be an intellectual historian who not just interprets the world, but changes it. At Oxford, Daniel will do the M.Phil. in History.
DISTRICT 4 Pennsylvania
Hazim Hardeman, Philadelphia, graduated magna cum laude from Temple University in May with a concentration in strategic communication. He is Temple’s first Rhodes Scholar. He grew up four blocks from Temple; his single mother found a way to enroll him in a better elementary school two hours away by public transportation but he had to return to his inner city high school. From there he attended the Community College of Philadelphia, where he graduated with High Honors. His research interests include critical pedagogy, race and politics, and African-American intellectual history. He has written on hip hop music, gun control, and the prison abolition movement. He is a substitute teacher in the Philadelphia School District, was a fellow in the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office of Community Empowerment, and took a course on death and dying with inmates in a prison hospice program. He explains that “arriving at truth through letting suffering speak” has been a guiding ideal. Hazim intends to do the M.Sc. in Higher Education at Oxford.
Pennsylvania Alan Yang, Dresher, is a senior at Harvard College where he majors in Molecular and Cellular Biology. He has a perfect academic record across widely disparate academic disciplines, has done research in four different laboratories, and has four publications in peer- reviewed journals. He also won a gold medal in the Young Artist’s Division of the World Piano Championships, edits the journal Brevia, and won the Harvard prize for Latin translation as a junior, even though he never studied Latin in college. Alan will compete in the National Intercollegiate Running Club Association Championships. He won the Harvard College Innovation Award for the outstanding extracurricular project, one that sends musicians into nursing homes, and is a student representative on the Harvard Faculty Committee for Public Service. He hopes to bring together the field of immunology and migration studies to improve the way resistant infections are tracked and treated. Alan will do the M.Sc. in Integrated Immunology at Oxford.
DISTRICT 5 Maryland/DC
Nathan R. Bermel, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, is a senior at the United States Naval Academy where he has a 4.0 GPA and majors in Quantitative Economics and Political Science. He ranks first in the Academic Order of Merit and second in the Military Order of Merit among 1,088 of his fellow midshipmen. He has interned for the Bureau of Energy Resources at the State Department, where he conducted analyses of the oil market in Iraq and Syria for the department’s counter-ISIL team. In the summer of 2017, he traveled to the Kwajalein Atoll to research the effects of climate change on the Republic of the Marshall Islands. He was a member of the Naval Academy’s two-time National Championship Club Lacrosse team. At Oxford, Nate will read for an M.P.P. in Public Policy.
Maryland/DC
Naomi T. Mburu, Ellicott City, is a senior at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she studies Chemical Engineering. She is the institution’s first Rhodes Scholar. A Barry M. Goldwater Scholar, she has co-authored two peer-reviewed journal articles and has given 11 research presentations, one of which resulted in her winning the 2016 National Society of Black Engineers Regional Conference award for the best oral presentation. She has interned at Intel and conducted research at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva. She spends much of her free time supporting STEM education through volunteer and leadership roles. Naomi plans to study for a D.Phil. in Engineering Science at Oxford.
DISTRICT 6 Georgia Chelsea A. Jackson, Lithonia, is a senior at Emory University, where she is pursuing a B.A. in Political Science and African-American Studies, and an M.A. in Political Science. She is a Truman Scholar. Her research explores how civil rights activists and government officials deployed the criminal justice system to achieve diametrically opposed goals. Her master’s thesis will focus on prosecutorial discretion and race. Chelsea is one of the primary campus leaders of the Racial Justice Initiative, an effort to create and sustain a more inclusive and engaging campus and is the Co-Founder of Atlanta Black Students United. She also helped to revive Emory’s chapter of the NAACP. Chelsea serves as the Musical Director of AHANA A Capella. At Oxford, Chelsea will read for an M.Sc. in Criminology and Criminal Justice.
Georgia Calvin Runnels, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a senior at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is pursuing a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and maintains a 4.0 GPA. Calvin’s research advances protein crystallographic techniques and investigates origins of the ribosome, which may provide insight into the origins of life. A passionate educator, Calvin is dedicated to “helping others find the joy and satisfaction in learning as I have.” At Georgia Tech, Calvin has been recognized as the highest rated Teaching Assistant for his work in undergraduate mathematics. An effective activist, Calvin has organized rallies in solidarity with the immigrant community and has led efforts to increase the number of gender-neutral bathrooms on campus. Calvin was also appointed by the President of Georgia Tech to co-chair the university’s LGBT+ Action Committee. Calvin is a transgender male. He follows Pema McLaughlin, the first self-acknowledged transgender American Rhodes Scholar (elected in 2016). At Oxford, Calvin will read for a D.Phil. in Biochemistry.
DISTRICT 7 Alabama Matthew Rogers, Huntsville, is a senior at Auburn University. He is pursuing a B.E. in Software Engineering and has a GPA of 4.0. An accomplished researcher and practitioner of cybersecurity, Matthew is a national champion in the Cyber Patriot competition. At Auburn, Matthew co-founded the Ethical Hacking Club in order to raise awareness of cyber security issues, highlighting the security vulnerability of critical systems and infrastructure. Matthew aspires to “usher in a new generation that can produce the cyber security research, and policy, necessary to prevent our globally connected society from falling apart.” Matthew will read for a D.Phil. in Cyber Security.
Mississippi Noah V. Barbieri, Belden, is a senior at Millsaps College where he is pursuing a B.Sc. in Economics, Mathematics, and Philosophy. Noah is a Truman Scholar with a 4.0 GPA. He has completed an honors thesis in philosophy and another in economics. His research has probed the antecedents of income inequality and explored the factors that affect labor force participation among prime age males. He also serves as the Student Body President and was awarded the Student Body Leader of the Year Award in 2017 as voted on by his peers. Marshalling the necessary political and managerial skills to drive impact, he aspires to a career in public service. At Oxford, Noah will read for an M.Phil. in Economics.
DISTRICT 8 Texas Mary Clare Beytagh, Dallas, is a senior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she has dual majors in biology and literature. Her GPA is 5.0 (on a 5.0 scale). She is already an accomplished cancer researcher at MIT and Memorial Sloan Kettering and the Rockefeller University. Mary Clare has been a leader of a student group that mentors disadvantaged youth and is a teaching assistant in mathematics. She is also a ballerina with more than fifteen years of experience, including national and international performances, having trained at the Dallas Metropolitan Ballet Company and at American Ballet Theater. She aspires to a career as oncologist, cancer scientist, and writer. Mary Clare intends to do the M.Sc. in Integrated Immunology at Oxford.
Texas Harold Xavier Gonzalez, Houston, is a senior concentrating in mathematics at Harvard College. His research has focused on the unexpected connection, ultimately provided by techniques from theoretical physics, between modular forms and finite symmetry groups. Xavier is a four-year varsity tennis player and has a 4.0 GPA. He presented a paper at the Annual Undergraduate Shakespeare Conference, is a peer advising fellow, and volunteered at a homeless shelter. At Cambridge University he took courses in Shakespeare and also in Gravitational Waves. His professional goals are to promote the public interest in math and to use math and its methods to promote the public interest. Xavier will do the M.Sc. by research in Mathematics at Oxford.
DISTRICT 9 Virginia
Simone M. Askew, Fairfax, is a senior at the United States Military Academy where she is majoring in International History. Simone holds the top leadership position at West Point, the Brigade Commander of the United States Corps of Cadets, where she is responsible for the development and performance of 4,400 cadets. She is the first African American female in the 215-year history of the Academy to hold this post. Lauded for her leadership abilities, she received the Pinnacle Award from the Black Women’s Agenda in Washington, D.C. Her undergraduate thesis focused on the use of rape as a tool of genocide and mass atrocity. At Oxford, she will read for an M.Sc. in Evidence-Based Social Intervention.
Virginia
Matthew Chun, Arlington, is a senior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, pursuing a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and Management Science. His GPA is 5.0 (on a 5.0 scale). Matthew researches the impact of intellectual property law on innovation and has worked as a patent technology specialist. He leads a team that is designing the first prosthetic knee intended specifically for the developing world. Matthew intends to build on his experience as a practitioner of innovation to shape international technology policy. A volunteer on the MIT ambulance corps, Matthew also serves as the captain of the MIT Wrestling Team. Matthew plans to do a B.A. in Jurisprudence at Oxford.
DISTRICT 10 Illinois Thomas J. Dowling, Chicago, is a senior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is pursuing a B.A. in Political Science and History, with a GPA of 4.0. He is a Truman Scholar. His senior thesis focuses on the professionalization and provision of constituent services in state legislatures. He is a Mayoral appointee for the City of Champaign Zoning Board of Appeals and has interned at the AFL-CIO and the Institute of Government and Public Affairs. Thomas powerlifts and participates in the Speech and Debate Club at UIUC. Thomas plans to do the Masters of Public Policy at Oxford.
Ohio
Camille A. Borders, Cincinnati, is a senior at Washington University in St. Louis. She is majoring in History as a Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellow. Her senior thesis researches the ways in which African-American women emerging from slavery understood and practiced their sexual lives and how slavery affected relationships. Camille was very active in the protests in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. Camille founded Washington University Students in Solidarity to address police brutality and racial profiling, and she served as the student representative on the search committee for the next campus police chief. Camille is a member of Washington University Slam Poetry. At Oxford, Camille will read for an M.Phil. in Social and Economic History.
DISTRICT 11 Michigan Nadine K. Jawad, Dearborn Heights, is a senior at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is pursuing a B.A. in Public Policy and Biology and is a Truman Scholar. As student body Vice President, she implements policies and initiatives related to underrepresentation in S.T.E.M, support for students with disability, campus affordability and scholarship opportunities, and housing access. She also oversees campus-wide nonpartisan efforts to expand voter registration. As the Co-Founder of Books for a Benefit, Nadine helps to provide supplementary programs and resources in literacy to students in Southeastern Michigan to advance more equitable opportunities in education. Nadine is the daughter of immigrants and refugees from Lebanon. At Oxford, she plans to do the M.Sc. in International Health and Tropical Medicine.
Michigan
Clara C. Lepard, East Lansing, graduated from Michigan State University in May with a B.S. in Zoology. She is passionate about animal and plant species conservation and is currently working as a research assistant in the Research on the Ecology of Carnivores and their Prey Lab at MSU. In that capacity, she studies the behavioral ecology of lions and ungulates in Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda. She earned the Outstanding Academic Achievement and Promise in Zoology Award from the College of Natural Science at MSU. She also served as a sexual assault and relationship violence prevention peer educator, leading workshops for incoming Michigan State University students. She will pursue a D.Phil. in Zoology at Oxford.
DISTRICT 12 Missouri
Jasmine Brown, Hillsborough, New Jersey, is a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, where she majors in Biology, with a focus in Neuroscience. While her primary focus has been neuroscience, she has also done cancer research at the Broad Institute, pulmonary research at Johns Hopkins, and studied behavioral science at the University of Miami. At Washington University she continues extensive research to identify protective genes against cognitive defects following West Nile induced encephalitis. She founded the Minority Association of Rising Scientists and serves as its president, working to provide minority students in STEM research resources and a community to be successful. She has tutored high school students and danced in a theater production. Her long-term goal is to combine her passion for science with her passion for diversity, while serving as a role model and mentor for the next generation of scientists. Jasmine will do a D.Phil. in Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at Oxford.
Tennessee Jaspreet “Jesse” Singh, Oak Ridge, is a senior at the United States Air Force Academy where he is pursuing a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering. Jesse’s research addresses questions of policy, ethics, and the management of military assets and nuclear weapons. In his career, Jesse intends to bridge the divide that exists between technology and policy. He interned at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and conducts ongoing research at the Center for Aircraft Structural Life Extension. Jesse has completed several ultramarathons. At Oxford, Jesse will read for an M.Sc. in Engineering Science.
DISTRICT 13 Colorado
Michael Z. Chen, Boulder, is a senior at Stanford University, pursuing a B.S. in Chemistry. Michael’s research spans biology and chemistry. He has investigated the neuronal basis o motivation and zeolite membranes as a promising technology for more energy-efficient gas separations. Michael is President of Stanford Synapse, a student group that works to support patients with traumatic brain injuries, and is a member of the Kayumanggi Filipino Dance Team. He intends to combine research and service in a career as a physician-scientist to improve the quality of life for traumatic brain injury patients. At Oxford, Michael will read for an M.Sc. in Computer Science and an M.Sc. in Neuroscience.
South Dakota
Joshua T. Arens, Yankton, graduated from the University of South Dakota in 2017 with a B.Sc. in Chemistry, summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA. Joshua researches a wide range of environmental problems and solutions, from reexamining the role of automobiles in society to discovering greener synthetic routes for polymers. Joshua is an evangelist for science-based policymaking. He is both a Truman Scholar and a Fulbright Scholar. During his time at the University of South Dakota, Joshua brought TEDx to campus and led a campaign to name the University a sanctuary campus. A fifth generation South Dakotan, Joshua grew up on a cattle and crop farm. At Oxford, Josh will pursue an M.Phil. in Environmental Change and Management.
DISTRICT 14 Alaska Samantha M. Mack, Anchorage, received her B.A. magna cum laude from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2016, with majors in Political Science and English, and will receive her M.A. in English with an emphasis on literary theory in May. She has a perfect academic record in each course, and is the first Rhodes Scholar from the University of Alaska Anchorage. An Aleut woman born in a remote village in the Aleutian Islands, her family brought her to Anchorage as a young girl for better educational opportunities. She has excelled across disciplines as she brings the lenses of indigeneity and feminism to issues in the development of Western democratic traditions. Her work in Alaska Native Studies and political theory reflects her strong interests in equity, respect for different patterns of life, and the prevention of the degradation of nature. Samantha plans to do the M.Phil. in Politics (Political Theory) at Oxford.
Oregon
JaVaughn T. “JT” Flowers, Portland, is a 2017 graduate of Yale University, with a B.A. in Political Science. A Truman Scholar, JT’s thesis examined policy gaps in Portland’s sanctuary city policy for undocumented immigrants. JT played varsity basketball at Yale before devoting his time to A Leg Even, an organization that facilitates the academic and professional of low- income students. A first-generation college graduate, JT helped to design and implement major changes to Yale’s financial aid system. After graduation, JT returned to his hometown of Portland to work in Rep. Earl Blumenauer’s field office. At Oxford, JT will study Comparative Social Policy.
DISTRICT 15 California-North
Madeleine K. Chang, San Francisco, is a senior at Stanford pursuing a B.A. in History. Madeleine envisions an ethical framework for the digital world, a set of rights that anticipate the social and political implications of the Internet and the data collection that enables it. Her honors thesis analyzes the Wikipedia entry about the Israel-Palestine conflict, challenging its organizing principle that crowd-sourcing can produce stable, coherent and accurate accounts of any topic. Madeleine serves as the co-president of the American Middle Eastern Network for Dialogue at Stanford, where she directs a team that organizes a growing network of 200+ individuals seeding social and political change in the Middle East and United States. She speaks Arabic, Spanish and Hebrew. At Oxford, Madeleine will read for an M.Sc. in Social Science of the Internet. California-North Sean P. Reilly, San Jose, graduated from Santa Clara University in 2016 with a B.Sc. in Environmental Science and Biology. He wrote his honors thesis on the Influence of the Santa Cruz Mountains on precipitation from a landfalling atmospheric river. The president of the SCU Green Club and Co-Founder of Fossil Free SCU, he successfully collaborated with university administrators to set up a sustainable investment fund. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2017 to lead a community-based participatory research project with the Mandingalbay Yidinji aboriginal people to manage the pond apple, a formidable bioinvader valued by the community as a food source. He is also a rock climber, pianist, guitar player, and a Gold-medal winner in the in the North American Roller Hockey Championship. At Oxford, Sean will read for a M.Sc. in Mathematical Modelling and Scientific Computing.
DISTRICT 16
California – South Alexis L. Kallen, Ventura, is a senior at Stanford, pursuing a B.A. in Political Science and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her honors thesis analyzes the international laws that protect Burundian refugees from sexual assault. A strong advocate for campus security, Alexis has pressed for the implementation of video cameras in external areas of campus to deter sexual assault and to help solve those crimes when they do occur. Alexis is the Chair of Stanford in Government and was an Executive Board Member of Stanford International Affairs Society, where she edited its newsletter. Alexis was Stanford University’s 127th Convocation Speaker. At Oxford, she will read for an M.Phil. in Development Studies.
California – South
Gabrielle C. Stewart, San Dimas, is a senior at Duke where she is pursuing an A.B. in Classical Language, and where she has a 4.0 GPA. Gabi’s research uncovers and challenges social hierarchies by studying history and classical texts. Her senior thesis investigates the early history and blossoming of papyrological studies in North America. A passionate advocate for marginalized populations, Gabi has assumed a number of leadership roles in efforts to alleviate poverty. She is a Founding and Executive Board Member of the Duke Coalition for Alleviating Poverty. Gabi sings and plays the guitar, piano, ukulele, banjo, mandolin, and bass. At Oxford, she will read for an M.St. in Classics.
