The Rhodes Scholarship provides the perfect framework to look into a remarkable and varied group of people.

Rhodes Scholars are individuals who went beyond just getting good grades in school. They have demonstrated a passion and curiosity for the world around them. From these conversations, perhaps you will find some lessons and inspiration about creating a meaningful and useful life.

Feel free to leave comments or send questions to rhodes [at] mailcan [dot] com.

Tricia Foo-Ying

- – -

About the Rhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship is widely considered one of the world’s most prestigious fellowships. It is postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford in England. Applicants must be at least 18 but not yet 24 years old.

In the American Rhodes Trust brochure, the scholarship is “to aid in the promotion of international understanding and peace” and should be seen as “a long-term investment in youth” who “offer the promise of effective service to the world in the decades ahead.”

Only students from the following countries are accepted:  Australia, Bermuda, Canada, the Caribbean Commonwealth, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Kenya, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and its neighbors (Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland), the United States, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

When Cecil J. Rhodes, a British-born South African financier and politician who founded the diamond company DeBeers, died in 1902, his will established a trust to facilitate the scholarships. His will listed four standards by which potential scholars should be judged:

  1. Literary and scholastic attainments
  2. Energy to use one’s talents to the full; as exemplified by fondness for and success in sports
  3. Truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness, and fellowship
  4. Moral force of character and instincts to lead, and to take an interest in one’s fellow beings

In the 105 years of the fellowship’s history, there have been about 7,000 scholars, with over 4,000 still living.