Fikemi Aiyepeku ’23 is the first Rhodes student to secure placement at one of the big three management consulting firms, which mostly recruit from graduate programs and a narrow set of top 10 universities. She credits her liberal arts education, faculty mentors, and peer support as the driving factors behind her placement as an associate consultant at Bain & Company.

The 174th Commencement of Rhodes College will be held Saturday, May 13, at 8:30 a.m. in the Hubert F. Fisher Memorial Garden on campus. In the event of rain, Commencement will take place in the Bryan Campus Life Center. Tickets are required for seating, and the program will stream live at www.rhodes.edu.

Claire Revels Shapiro, Rhodes College’s chief human resources officer, has decided to retire after 37 years in the industry, the last 29 years at Rhodes. Her last day will be June 30.

Walker Coleman, a senior international studies and art history double major from Cincinnati, OH, has been awarded The Steve and Riea Lainoff Crop Trust Fellowship in Honor of Cary Fowler ’71. The fellowship is made possible through the generosity of Steve and Riea Lainoff, parents of Rhodes graduates Brian Lainoff ’11 and Mark Lainoff ’15.

They were recognized at the college’s annual Awards Convocation, held on campus April 28. Dr. David McCarthy of the Department of Art received the Clarence Day Award for Outstanding Teaching. Dr. William Skoog of the Department of Music, received the Clarence Day Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity.

Blake Lawler ’24, Kate Hazelwood ’26, and Jessica Myat ’24 gave physics presentations on their ultrasonic studies research at the Western Collegiate Division Meeting of the Tennessee Academy of Sciences held April 22.

Maya Khalife-Hamdan ’25 and Katherine Ryan ’23, both pursuing majors in Spanish and international studies, presented their research at the symposium held at Rollins College April 14 in Winter Park, FL.

The Global Ghana program at Rhodes provides students with the opportunity to live and study for a semester in Accra, Ghana. Asher Drummond ’25, a philosophy, politics, and economics major and French minor from Colorado, was among the first cohort to participate in the program.

Photographer, singer, harpist, improv coach—computer science major Thea Li has made the most of every opportunity while at Rhodes. Li's culminating project as a Memphis Center Art Fellow is currently on exhibit in West Campus.

Founded in 1776, Phi Beta Kappa is America’s oldest collegiate honor society. Its campus chapters invite for induction the most outstanding liberal arts students at America’s leading colleges and universities. Fewer than one percent of U.S. college graduates are eligible. Membership is one of the highest academic honors a student can attain, and it stands as a life-long mark of excellence in the study of the liberal arts.