Despite the Rhodes Mock Trial team not being able to compete in the American Mock Trial Association National Championship Tournament for the first time in 33 years due to COVID-19, recent graduate Brian Burgess says that membership on the nation’s most successful collegiate mock trial team for four years was about more than trophies.

The annual Ostrander Awards recognize the best in Memphis theater. Hissifit (by Knight/Brinegar), produced by Rhodes’ McCoy Theatre for the 2019-2020 season, garnered eight nominations in the collegiate division, including one for best production. An adaption of Medusa in Greek mythology tracking the rise and fall of a modern-day punk rock band, Hissifit was directed by Dr. Joy Brooke Fairfield, who is among the Ostrander Award nominees.

Tony Eskridge ’20, an urban studies major and former Rhodes Student Government president, has won an Emerson National Hunger Fellowship, an 11-month program that provides unique leadership development opportunities for motivated individuals who wish to make a difference in eliminating hunger and poverty in the United States.

Justin Terrill’s Summer Service Fellowship at Just City took on new significance in response to concentrated COVID-19 outbreaks in jails and after the death of George Floyd and the nationwide protests that followed, putting him on the front lines in the battle for systemic changes to the criminal justice system.

Rhodes biology alumna Emma Selner ’18 has had a manuscript based on her undergraduate research published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Computational and Theoretical Chemistry. The article, titled “The Effects of Ligand Charge, Orientation and Size on the Binding of Potential Inhibitors for Aldehyde Dehydrogenase,” has applications in treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

Luxury and lifestyle travel magazine Condé Nast Travelerperiodically puts together a gallery of campuses that catch their eye. In its July 24th online issue, editors have featured Rhodes College in “The 50 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America.”

Facing a remote end to his senior year and a cancelled final baseball season due to COVID-19, John Medich ’20 set his sights on a new goal: in the fall, the Sewickley, PA, native will be competing with ACC powerhouse Georgia Tech as a graduate transfer while pursuing an M.S. in Quantitative and Computational Finance.

Working remotely as a Summer Service fellow appointed to Memphis Area Legal Services’ Restoration of Rights program, Sydney Jones '21 assists clients in restoring their right to vote, getting their drivers licenses reinstated, expunging their criminal records, and much more.

On July 15, President Marjorie Hass announced that Rhodes College will continue remote learning for fall 2020.

Faced with the sudden transition to remote learning and social distancing, Curation in Context students used digital platforms to address the meaning of art during a time of separation and hardship.