Covid-19 pandemic: US Rhodes Scholars 2021 chosen virtually for first time

The Rhodes Trust announced the 32 winners early Sunday, which include 22 students of color. Ten are Black, which ties the record for the most Black students elected in a single year.

Shera Avi-Yonah, a 22-year-old Harvard University student, said she found out about her win Saturday night while she was sitting in her parent’s basement in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

“A wave of gratitude washed over me," Avi-Yonah said, adding that she ran upstairs to tell her parents. “I’m going to have a very happy Thanksgiving."

The winners were chosen from a pool of more than 2,300 applicants — of which 953 were endorsed by 288 different colleges and universities to study at Oxford University in England.

Avi-Yonah is planning to study history at Oxford, comparing the libel laws of the U.S. and United Kingdom. She is a reporter at the Harvard Crimson, the campus newspaper, and has been the subject of several lawsuits for various stories -- prompting her interest in the limits of press freedom.

She’s hoping to become a journalist after she finishes her studies, and noted that it’s a unique time in the industry. “It’s a moment where journalism is both in crisis financially and there are outside attacks, but it’s also more vital than ever to our democracy."

Sixteen committees from the Rhodes Trust invited the strongest applicants to interview virtually. The committees then made their selection of two students from each district.

The group includes a student from Southern Connecticut State University and a student from the University of California, Santa Cruz; the first time either university has been represented.

The winners include 17 women, 14 men and one nonbinary person.

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