From Bill Clinton to mayor of Los Angeles, Rhodes Scholarship continues to help achievers
In October 1968, a clean-cut young graduate of Georgetown University turned up at Oxford University armed with a Rhodes Scholarship worth £900 a year.
The student, who had a thick Arkansas drawl, was Bill Clinton, who subsequently became the first Rhodes Scholar to enter the White House.
He threw himself into Oxford life, growing his hair long and playing rugby for the university’s second XV.
He was, according to contemporaries, an enthusiastic but incompetent second-row forward.
Fast-forward to this year and at least two potential Democratic candidates – Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker – are former Rhodes Scholars.
In all, there have been 8,000 past winners of the 116-yearold scholarship programme. About 5,000 are still alive.
It is a list packed with scholars who have excelled in politics, academia, the media and diplomacy. So few people would bet against another Rhodes Scholar making it to the White House.
American winners have included Dean Rusk, who served as secretary of state in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and Susan Rice, Barack Obama’s national security adviser.
Scholars from outside the US include Malcolm Turnbull, the former prime minister of Australia, and Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s Foreign Minister.
They have fulfilled the scholarship’s mission statement to “bring together and develop exceptional people from all over the world, and in all fields of study, who are impatient with the way things are and have the courage to act”.
Larry Sabato, director of the Centre for Politics at the University of Virginia and a Rhodes Scholar in 1975, says it has long been regarded as the most competitive and prestigious of all scholarships.
“The key to understanding why so many Rhodes Scholars are in and around politics is the mandate scholars are given to make a difference in the world,” Mr Sabato says.
“Involvement in public affairs and leadership are ingredients in the selection process, and there is an expectation that scholars will use the experience to benefit their society, not just for private gain.
“Politics is one logical way to achieve this goal. Or this is how I’ve always looked at it.”
Sheikha Majida Al Maktoum and Amal Al Gergawi are among 101 scholars in the class of 2019 from across the globe, including 32 from the US. The rest come from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Australia, Canada, Europe and other parts of the Middle East.
For the first time, the foundation will fund two “global” scholars who come from countries outside the existing “constituencies”, which were established since the programme started in 1903.
The scholarship pays for transport, tuition and living expenses, and can be worth as much as US$250,000 (Dh918,275) a student.
It was founded following a bequest by Cecil Rhodes, a mining magnate, businessman and politician who served as prime minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896.
His deep belief in British imperialism has led to controversy in recent years, including a campaign to remove his statue from the University of Oxford.
The campaign failed because donors, who have supported the scholarship, threatened to withdraw bequests worth more than £100 million.
The scholarship can be worth as much as US$250,000 (Dh918,275) per student