FBISD graduate among Rhodes Scholars
Jeremy Thomas, a Fort Bend ISD graduate, is one of 32 students to receive a prestigious Rhodes scholarship to attend the University of Oxford.
Thomas, a senior at Amherst College, on Monday said he was still processing the news.
“I’m honestly still a little bit in shock,” said Thomas, 21, who found out Saturday afternoon he was selected. “It’s so, so, so exciting and I’m just really, really grateful for everyone and everything that has brought me to this point.”
The U.S. Rhodes Scholars for 2021 were elected virtually this year for the first time because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Rhodes Trust announced the winners over the weekend, and among the cohort are 17 women, 14 men and one nonbinary person.
The winners were chosen from a pool of more than 2,300 applicants — of which 953 were endorsed by 288 different colleges and universities to study at Oxford University in England.
Thomas, who hopes to go to law school after college, said he is interested in the criminal legal system, its historical ties to slavery, and how that implicates the present.
Thomas, who currently resides in Missouri City as he does virtual schooling, has interned for Southern Center for Human Rights, a non-profit law firm in Georgia and also
Georgetown Law School’s Prettyman Criminal Justice Clinic.
Of the Rhodes Scholars, 22 are students of color. Ten are Black, which ties the record for the most Black students elected in a single year.
The scholarship is an international postgraduate award. It was established in 1902.
Thomas, who is double majoring at Amherst in English and Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought, said he hopes the diversity of the scholarship winners inspires a future generation.
“I’m also really excited to have people have that visual,” said Thomas, who is Black and a Clements High School graduate. “My sister, who is 12, she was like ‘Oh this seems really cool, I wanna do that.’ ”