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A6 U.S. NEWS
Monday 20 noveMber 2017

10 African Americans named Rhodes scholars, most ever

By GENE JOHNSON three years of study start- serve as first captain of the Several of the winners have before her parents brought
Associated Press ing next October. In some 4,400-member Corps of devoted efforts to racial, her to Anchorage for bet-
The latest group of U.S. cases, the scholarships may Cadets at the U.S. Military social and economic jus- ter educational opportu-
Rhodes scholars includes allow funding for four years. Academy — the highest tice. nities. She studies political
10 African Americans — theory from an indigenous
the most ever in a single and feminist perspective.
Rhodes class — as well as a Thamara V. Jean, of Brook-
transgender man and four lyn, New York, completed
students from colleges that her senior thesis at Hunter
had never had received College of the City Universi-
the honor before. ty of New York on the Black
The Rhodes Trust on Sun- Lives Matter movement.
day announced the 32 Jean is a child of Haitian
men and women chosen immigrants, according to
for post-graduate studies Debbie Raskin, a spokes-
at Oxford University in Eng- woman for Hunter College.
land. Among them: the first And JaVaughn T. “J.T.”
black woman to lead the Flowers, who graduated
Corps of Cadets at West this year from Yale Univer-
Point; a wrestler at the sity with a degree in po-
Massachusetts Institute of litical science, helped start
Technology who’s helping an organization at Yale
develop a prosthetic knee that provides mentors, tu-
for use in the developing tors and summer stipends
world; and a Portland, Or- to make sure low-income
egon, man who has stud- students receive the same
ied gaps in his hometown’s academic opportunities as
“sanctuary city” policy pro- In this Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, photo, Cadet Simone Askew, of Fairfax, Va., who has been selected others. Flowers has also ex-
tecting immigrants in the first captain of the U.S. Military Academy Corps of Cadets for the upcoming academic year, amined gaps in Portland’s
country illegally from de- answers questions during a news conference, in West Point, NY. Askew earned another prestigious sanctuary city policy. After
portation. honor Sunday, Nov. 19, when she was one of 32 Americans awarded Rhodes scholarships to study graduating, he returned to
“This year’s selections — in- at Oxford University in England. Portland to work in the field
dependently elected by (AP Photo/Richard Drew) office of Democratic U.S.
16 committees around the Rep. Earl Blumenauer, who
country meeting simulta- The winners came from a position in the cadet chain Harvard College senior said Flowers has worked on
neously — reflects the rich group of 866 applicants of command at West Point. Tania N. Fabo, of Saugus, a variety of issues, including
diversity of America,” Elliot who were endorsed by Askew, a senior, is majoring Massachusetts, created on how high costs of phone
F. Gerson, American sec- 299 colleges and universi- in international history, fo- and codirected the first or video calls in prisons not
retary of the Rhodes Trust, ties. Four of the institutions cused her undergraduate Black Health Matters Con- only rip off the inmates, but
said in a news release an- had winners for the first thesis on the use of rape ference at the university. An make it harder for them
nouncing the winners Sun- time: Hunter College at the as a tool of genocide and immigrant who was born in to keep in touch with their
day. “They plan to study a City University of New York; plans to study evidence- Germany to Cameroonian families and thus to read-
wide range of fields across Temple University in Phila- based social intervention parents, she plans to re- just to society when they’re
the social sciences, biologi- delphia; the University of at Oxford. Her mother told search oncology at Oxford. released. “He’s just an out-
cal and medical scienc- Alaska in Anchorage; and reporters over the summer: “I’m still kind of in shock,” standing candidate for
es, physical sciences and the University of Maryland, “That leadership is some- Fabo said Sunday. “When the Rhodes,” Blumenauer
mathematics, and the hu- Baltimore County. thing I’ve seen throughout they told me on Saturday I said Sunday. “He’s a very
manities.” The 10 African Americans her life — wanting to be didn’t really fully believe it.” quick study, very good with
The scholarships, consid- in the class include Simone first, wanting to be the best, Samantha M. Mack, the people, an incisive listener
ered by many to be the Askew, of Fairfax, Virginia, wanting to win, in sports, first winner from the Univer- who is able to translate that
most prestigious available who made headlines in in academics, in every as- sity of Alaska Anchorage, is back to people who con-
to American students, cov- August when she became pect of her life. ... And to an Aleut woman who was tact him and to the staff in
er all expenses for two or the first black woman to serve others, as well.” born in a remote village our office. q