10 African American Rhodes Scholars Selected for 2020
Recently, the Rhodes Trust announced the 32 American winners of Rhodes Scholarships for graduate study at Oxford University in England. 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. Being named a Rhodes Scholar is considered among the highest honors that can be won by a U.S. college student.
The scholarships were created in 1902 by the will of Cecil Rhodes, an industrialist who made a vast fortune in colonial Africa. According to the will of Rhodes, applicants must have “high academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness, respect for others, potential for leadership, and physical vigor.”
BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES
Tyrese D. Bender of Fairfax,Virginia, is in his final year at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He is majoring in engineering. He is a deputy brigade commander, the second-highest ranking cadet in the West Point chain of command. Bender has a 4.0 GPA. He established a character training protocol for 1,300 cadets around issues including race, sexual harassment and assault, mental health, political activism and COVID-19. Bender is also captain of the track and field team and a champion triple jumper. As a Rhodes Scholar, he plans to study for a master’s degree in sociology and a master’s degree in evidence-based social intervention and policy evaluation.
Aryemis C. Brown, is a senior at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, where he majors in legal studies and humanities and minors in religion studies and philosophy. Brown’s research interests are in space and cyberspace law, technology, policy, and philosophy. He commanded the Air Force Cadet Wing as commander of troops, serving as the highest-ranking cadet at the Academy. His overall order of merit, combining athletic, military and academic factors is 2 of 1059. He was named a Truman Scholar this year from Maryland, where he graduated from high school. At Oxford, Brown will pursue a master’s degree in global governance and diplomacy and a master of public policy degree.
Phaidra S. Buchanan is a senior at the University of Georgia, where she is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in education. Buchanan conducted research on the university’s role in the institution of slavery and studied the lived experiences of enslaved people connected to the university as a member of the History of Slavery at UGA research team. She also volunteers with an organization working to ensure equal access to higher education for students of immigrant families. Buchanan plans a career as a teacher and as an advocate for policies that empower students and communities. At Oxford, she plans to obtain a master’s degree in comparative and international education.
Jamal T. Burns of St. Louis is a senior at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, where he majors in history. A Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, his research engages colonial influences on interpretations of the masculinity of Black boys in school settings. Burns is a leading promoter of a new debate paradigm known as performance debate; he organized a speech and debate tournament that brings high school debaters from across the country to Duke. Jamal also founded and ran a campus organization for first-generation college students. At Oxford, Burns will study for a master’s degree in social anthropology and a master’s degree in education.
Elijah C. DeVaughn is from Compton, California. He is a senior at Harvard College, where he concentrates in history and literature. A Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, his academic interests lie in exploring how rhetoric is used by Black political leaders to combat racial injustice. DeVaughn has worked on issues of legal representation, clemency, and prison advocacy. Most recently, he worked for the Secretary of Legal Affairs in the Office of California Governor Gavin Newsom where he reviewed state prisoners’ applications for commutations and pardons. DeVaughn is an actor, dancer, and singer and serves as the Chief of Public Service on the Harvard Undergraduate Council. At Oxford, he plans on studying for a master’s degree in history.
Danielle N. Grey-Stewart hails from Westbury, New York. She is a senior at MIT majoring in materials science and engineering. A materials scientist who is passionate about social justice, Grey-Stewart has extensive independent research experience and is a student leader at MIT’s Center for Public Service. She is also the current chair of the Undergraduate Association Committee on COVID-19 and serves on the Student Advisory Group for Engineering. Grey-Stewart plans on a career that will “responsibly use the elegance of engineering to address the immense inequity within our society” and integrate historically ignored perspectives into science policy. At Oxford, Grey-Stewart plans to pursue a master’s degree in nature, society, and environmental governance.
Nkaziewok N. Nchinda-Pungong is from Oak Creek, Wisconsin. He is a senior at Harvard College where is majoring in biomedical engineering with a minor in sociology. Nchinda-Pungong is working with a team to design a smartphone-based hemoglobin sensor for point-of-care anemia diagnosis. He is is editor-in-chief of Harvard Brevia, the goal of which is to make scientific research more accessible to students and the general public. In addition to extensive research in microbiology, Nchinda-Pungong has been active in Engineers Without Borders, is co-President of the Harvard Community of Humanists, Atheists and Agnostics, and volunteered extensively in a homeless shelter. The son of Cameroonian immigrants, Nkazi’s focus at Oxford will be to merge his interests in bioengineering and global health in order to make healthcare more scalable and affordable. He will pursue a master’s degree in research in engineering science.
Samuel E. Patterson of Marietta, Georgia, is a senior at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He is triple majoring in mathematics, statistics, and economics. Patterson has done summer research in economics and education at Harvard and in business at the University of Chicago. An accomplished musician, Patterson is the music director of a community organization and plays upright and electric jazz bass, and volunteered to teach the basics of computer programming to middle school students. His deep work in economics through an equity lens has focused on the importance of transportation infrastructure to improve economic opportunity. Patterson will study for a master’s degree in nature, society and environmental governance at Oxford.
Jeremy N. Thomas is a senior at Amherst College in Massachusetts, where he is a double major in English and law, jurisprudence, and social thought. Thomas serves as student body president of the Association of Amherst Students and launched the campus’s first student-run Office of Student Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. He has also held numerous leadership roles in the Amherst College Black Student Union. His senior honors thesis analyzes limits on the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause. Thomas has published academic research on death row exonerations. A resident of Missouri City, Texas, as a Rhodes Scholar Thomas plans to pursue both a master’s degree in criminal justice and criminology and a master’s degree in comparative social policy.
Evan C. Walker of Rowlett, Texas, is in her final year at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where she majors in operations research, with focuses in statistics and linear algebra. Her thesis analyzes the demographics of promotion and attrition among U.S. Army Field Grade Officers. Walker is a Regimental Commander, served as the chief liaison between survivors of sexual harassment or assault and on-campus medical professionals, and is president of an initiative to mentor minority cadets. Walker is also captain of the nationally ranked and gender integrated Army Boxing Team and last year placed second nationally in her weight class. At Oxford, Walker plans to pursue a master’s degree in sociology and a master’s degree in statistical science.
