Maya Khalife-Hamdan, a senior with a double majoring in international studies and Spanish, presented a poster of her Honors project in international studies at the 82nd Annual Midwest Political Science Association Conference held in Chicago April 3-6.

Rhodes senior Eleanor Ellsworth, who is pursuing a double major in biology and Chinese studies, represented her research group at the ASIANetwork 2025 Annual Conference and presented results from their project titled “Asian Foodways in Memphis: Reasons for Rebrands.” The group includes Sophia Burke ’26, Stella Venn ’25, Gwen Williams ’24, and Silvia Flores ’24.

Members of the Rhodes community celebrated the many paths that lead students to Rhodes and into their futures. Rhodes Giving Day was held April 2-3, and the campaign received 1,210 gifts and raised $236,490.

Rhodes students Jennifer Bui ’26, Hugh Ferguson ’27, Layla Lammers ’27, Trinity Liaw ’25, and Catherine Prabish ’27 traveled to Washington, D.C., in March to discuss their undergraduate research with U.S. senators and representatives. The trip was part of their participation in the Students Transforming Through Research Advocacy Program presented by The Council on Undergraduate Research.

The Spence Wilson Center for Interdisciplinary Humanities at Rhodes College will host a conversation with Dr. Shelly Lowe, former chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities on April 24. Lowe will speak on “Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future: The State of the Humanities Today.”

Philosophy major Maya Underwood ’26 is rounding out her liberal arts experience with volunteer work, pre-med education, and musical training. In a year, she will be on her way to George Washington University’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences, thanks to Rhodes’ Health Professions Advising Early Selection Program. George Washington University’s search for uncommon students like Underwood and Rhodes’ knack for producing them led to a partnership between the two institutions that allowed her to be accepted into medical school far earlier than most.

Anna Claire Tilley, a Rhodes College senior from Fort Smith, AR, has been awarded The Steve and Riea Lainoff Crop Trust Fellowship in Honor of Cary Fowler ’71. She is pursuing a major in urban studies and a minor in environmental studies and will support the work of the resource mobilization and communications teams of the Global Crop Diversity Trust in Bonn, Germany, in August 2025.

Ada Collins, who is a physics and mathematics major from Greensboro, NC, is among the 441 students from across the United States who have been selected as Goldwater Scholars for the 2025-2026 academic year. The Goldwater Foundation provides scholarships to support college sophomores and juniors who show exceptional promise of becoming the nation’s next generation of natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering research leaders.

In 2021, Rhodes announced that its research proposal for a four-inch, cube-shaped satellite named RHOK-SAT was selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for its CubeSat Launch Initiative. Now the CubeSat has been delivered to NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, where it will wait for liftoff this summer.

Dr. Michael Nelson, professor of political science at Rhodes College and a recognized presidential scholar, has written a new book titled How College Presidents Succeed: Lessons in Leadership from Three Generations of Reveleys. It will be released April 8 by University of Virginia Press.