Four Rhodes College juniors are competing for the 2021 Truman Scholarship, the premier graduate fellowship in the United States for those pursuing careers as public service leaders. They are Elizabeth Baldwin, Karim Garcia, Mariam Khayata, and Lauren Moore. The Truman Scholarship is a highly competitive national award, which provides up to $30,000 for a recipient to apply toward graduate school.

Rhodes College has formed a new partnership with The Posse Foundation to offer full-tuition leadership scholarships to diverse cohorts of students from Memphis and cities around the United States. Many of the cohort members will be the first in their families to attend college and typically attend high schools that are often overlooked in tradition student recruitment. 

For the past decade, students in Dr. Sarah Boyle’s Animal Behavior course have been granted access to the Memphis Zoo to design behavioral research projects in collaboration with the zoo. These research projects have addressed many topics, but 10 independent studies on 16 species have focused on the impact of zoo visitors on animal behavior. Now the research has been published in the journal Animals for its special issue on evidence-based practice in zoo animal management.

Rhodes sophomores Hadley Lim and Lily Whitesell are part of an international astronomical research team, thanks to the work their Rhodes physics professor Dr. David Rupke is doing in preparation for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to launch in 2021. The team of astronomers—made up of students, postdoctoral researchers, professors, and other scientists from around the world—have been writing software used to study quasars, which are bright, active supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies.

Three Rhodes students won awards for their research presentations at the Arkansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) virtual conference recently hosted by the University of Arkansas. They are Will Newman ’21, Dasha Safarian ’21, and Kameron Klugh ’22. Students from more than 20 colleges and universities participated in the conference.

Mystery Writers of America (MWA) has named prominent Rhodes alumna, Charlaine Harris Schulz ’73­­, a 2021 Grand Master. The New York Times bestselling author, who writes under the name Charlaine Harris, has published 13 novels in her Southern Vampire series, which was adapted by HBO into the popular television series, True Blood.

A remote semester at Rhodes has offered new challenges, but also opportunities for students to get creative. Seniors Harrison Rozman, Katie Gordon, and Ellie Schreiner have used this time to pursue entrepreneurial ventures.

Madison Zickgraf, a senior English major from Mount Juliet, TN, made the list of American finalists for the 2021 Rhodes Scholarship, the oldest and perhaps the best-known international fellowship program, which enables exceptional young people from around the world to study at the University of Oxford. Applicants for the Rhodes Scholarship must be endorsed by their college or university. Zickgraf was lauded for her intelligence, drive, insightfulness, and empathy by her recommenders at Rhodes College.

Rev. Beatrix Weil, chaplain at Rhodes College, is the recipient of multiple awards—totaling $14,000—that will help Rhodes students connect with the broader world and support the college’s commitment to promoting diversity, inclusion, equity, and accessibility.