For the first time, Rhodes Scholars selected virtually amid COVID-19

The U.S. Rhodes Scholars for 2021 were elected virtually this year for the first time amid global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The trust announced the winners on early Sunday, which include 22 students of color. Ten are Black, which ties the record for the most Black students elected in a single year.

Each year on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the Trust announces the names of the newest Rhodes Scholarship winners from the United States.

The award is considered to be the most prestigious for American college graduates, that was established in 1903, with the first class of scholars beginning their Oxford studies in 1904.

This year more than 2,300 students began the application process. Then, selection committees in 16 U.S. districts interview those judged to be the strongest candidates.

The selection criteria fall into four broad categories: academic excellence; the energy to use one’s talents to the fullest; attributes such as truth, courage, kindness, and devotion to duty; and the moral force of character and instincts to lead.

Shera Avi-Yonah, one of the 32 winners of the scholarship, found out about her win on Saturday night while she was sitting in her parents’ basement in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

The 22-year-old Harvard University student said, “A wave of gratitude washed over me.”

“I’m going to have a very happy Thanksgiving.”

Meanwhile, Asma Rahimyar, a 20-year-old senior at Southern Connecticut State University, is the first-ever Rhodes winner from that institution. Her parents migrated from Afghanistan and she was raised in Trumbull, Connecticut.

She hopes to earn two master’s degrees, one in forced migration and refugee studies and one in global governance and diplomacy, with an eye toward a career in international human rights law.

Scholarship-winners expressed incredulity at hearing they would be Rhodes Scholars, a distinction that has launched the careers of famous politicians, academics, scientists and journalists.