ATLANTA — Two college students from Atlanta have been named 2021 Rhodes scholars, officials announced Sunday.
The Rhodes scholarship is an international postgraduate award that is the oldest and one of the world’s most celebrated academic awards. Scholars attend Oxford University for at least two years.
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Phaidra Buchanan and Sam Patterson join recipients from 64 countries around the world, 32 of whom are American.
Buchanan, from Tyrone, Georgia, is a social studies education major at the University of Georgia. Buchanan has researched inequalities in the American education system, segregation and the history of slavery at UGA.
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“Phaidra Buchanan is now part of a distinguished legacy of Rhodes Scholars who studied at the University of Georgia,” said UGA Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost S. Jack Hu. “In addition to congratulating her, I also want to thank the faculty and staff in the Honors Program and across campus who supported Phaidra and helped make her success possible.”
Patterson, who is from Marietta, attends the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He plans to pursue a masters of science in the Nature, Society and Environmental Governance program at Oxford with a focus on the economics of transportation.
“Sam has an exceptionally fine mind, and couples to it diligence and determination,” shares Simon Stacey, director of the UMBC Honors College. “He has a genuine capacity for identification with others, and a deep commitment to justice, equity, and equality.”
Rhodes scholars were selected virtually this year for the first time in history due to the pandemic.
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