(AP) — The latest group of U.S. Rhodes scholars includes 21 women, the most ever in a single Rhodes class, and almost half of the 32 winners are immigrants or first-generation Americans.
Among those is Katherine Kowal, who graduated from Lewis and Clark College in 2017.
Her official Rhodes scholar biography states:
summa cum laude, in Physics and Political Science where she received the Rena J. Ratte Award,
the College’s highest academic honor. Katie was elected to Phi Beta Kappa as a junior. She is a
Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the Institute for Defense Analyses where she consults
on space weather and space nuclear power. Her focus is strengthening society’s capacity to
prepare for extreme weather and to develop a better understanding of the connection
between extreme weather and climate change. She was a captain of Lewis and Clark’s varsity
track and field team. At Oxford, Katie will read for a D.Phil. in Geography and Environment.
In a Lewis and Clark bio on the Pamplin Society of Fellows, she said she was a double major in physics and political science.
“As I have progressed through my education at Lewis & Clark, I have become more and more passionate about the interrelated nature of these two seemingly separate disciplines. Learning how to think like a physicist has given me courage to breakdown complex problems into workable solutions. Examining policies and governance structures has given me the application for which I want to use this mindset.”
Studying in the Dominican Republic in 2015 inspired her to focus on environmental justice. But when she wasn’t in class, she said she was on the track “or just being silly with friends.”
The Rhodes Trust on Sunday announced the 32 men and women chosen from a group of 880 applicants endorsed by 281 U.S. colleges and universities for studies beginning next fall at Oxford University in England.
The organization says this is the first year of eligibility for the scholarship for those covered by an Obama-era program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, that shields young immigrants from deportation, and that a DACA recipient from Harvard is a new Rhodes scholar.
Duke, Princeton and Yale each had three Rhodes scholars.
Also selected was an international group of scholars representing more than 64 countries.
KOIN 6 News contributed to this report