Jennifer Huang, a 2017 IU graduate, was named a 2019 Rhodes Scholar earlier this month, according to an IU press release.
The academic award is given to only 32 college students in the United States each year, according to the release, and includes a scholarship covering all expenses for two to three years of study at the University of Oxford in England, and in some instances may allow funding for four years.
Huang graduated with honors from IU with a 3.95 grade-point average and a bachelor's degree in mathematics and social and cultural analysis, according to the release.
“Jenny is a rare and refreshingly different kind of student, a pure thinker who defined herself in terms of her intellectual interests,” IU President Michael McRobbie said in the release.
Huang was one of more than 2,500 students who applied to the scholarship, according to the release. Only 880 of those applicants were endorsed by their colleges and universities and the strongest candidates were interviewed by selection committees across the country.
Huang said she is humbled and honored to be named a Rhodes Scholar and is grateful for her faculty, mentors and friends who helped along the way.
“This university has shaped the values that I bring to my research, storytelling and public service,” Huang said in the release. “I look forward to carrying those experiences to Oxford and beyond.”
While at IU, Huang used her undergraduate thesis to explore Iceland’s renewable energy industry, and co-authored a paper about the French revolution for the science journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, according to the release.
Huang serves as the civic engagement program coordinator at the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, as well as a policy associate for the office of the mayor of South Bend.
According to the release, Huang is the second Rhodes Scholar from IU in the past three years, and is one of only 18 IU alumni to receive the award since 1905.
With the Rhodes Scholarship, Huang plans to study public policy and the social science of the internet at Oxford, according to the release.
