University of Georgia

We The People

Spring 2024

Back-to-Back Rhodes Scholars

SPIA students named Rhodes Scholars in 2023 and 2024

Stephanie Schupska

Original story on UGA Today

by Stephanie Schupska

University of Georgia student Mariah Cady was one of 32 students nationwide named a 2024 Rhodes Scholar this weekend. UGA is the only school in the SEC and one of only five public universities, in addition to the nation’s service academies, in the U.S. to have a Rhodes recipient this year.

Cady joins recipients from 64 countries around the world. UGA and Agnes Scott College were the only two institutions in Georgia to have Rhodes scholars in the 2024 cohort.

The Rhodes Scholarship is the oldest and most celebrated international fellowship award in the world. The 2024 Rhodes Scholars will begin their various courses of study as graduate students at the University of Oxford in October. Cady is a current Morehead Honors College student and Foundation Fellow at UGA. She is also a Security Leadership Program fellow in UGA’s School of Public and International Affairs.

“We are extraordinarily proud that Mariah has joined the long and distinguished list of University of Georgia students who have been honored as Rhodes Scholars,” said UGA President Jere W. Morehead. “I am confident that Mariah will make significant contributions to the world through her academic and professional pursuits.”

Cady, a 2023 Boren Scholar from Midland, is a senior in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and School of Public and International Affairs, majoring in Russian and international affairs with minors in geography, German, and teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL).

“This remarkable honor is recognition of Mariah’s exceptional achievements as an undergraduate and a reflection of the excellence of UGA’s academic programs,” said S. Jack Hu, the university’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “I am particularly thankful for the faculty and staff of the Morehead Honors College and those across campus who have supported Mariah on her academic journey.”

At the University of Oxford, Cady plans to pursue two master’s degrees: the first in linguistics, philology and phonetics and the second in refugee and forced migration studies. She would like to specialize in Indo-European languages and deepen her studies in Arabic, Turkish and Greek. She plans to engage in critical reflection on the ways in which governments can enhance refugee resettlement policies. As she prepares for a career in diplomacy, she said, undergraduate degrees in Russian and international affairs and studies of eight languages—German, Russian, Lakota, Serbo-Croatian, Arabic, Greek, Turkish and Kazakh—have provided her with a dual foundation in cross-linguistic communication and human security studies.

A student in the UGA Russian Flagship Program, Cady is currently studying in Kazakhstan at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University as a Boren Scholar. From April to September, she studied at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany on an international student exchange.

Cady has researched the balance of regional, national and supra-regional identities in southern Germany; the culinary tradition of the Russian diaspora; preventative recommendations on border violence for refugees in Europe; press coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis across European states as well as in the U.K. and Germany; community resource mapping in Germany; and Supreme Court Justice ideology in cases involving indigenous tribes.

At UGA, she has been involved with the Native American Students Association, serving as president; Russian Club; Georgia Debate Union; and Paper Airplanes, providing free tutoring for refugees and individuals impacted by conflict. She was an English teaching assistant at the Newcomers Academy in Barrow County; an English tutor at Bay Creek Elementary School; a summer intern for the Freedom Fund Bailout Program; a community tutor with the Athens Anti-Discrimination Movement; and an assistant debate coach for Harrisburg High School in South Dakota (online). She has received funding from UGA’s Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities (CURO) to support her research and has presented at the annual CURO Symposium.

Other recent UGA Rhodes Scholars include Natalie Navarrete in 2023, Phaidra Buchanan in 2021, Laura Courchesne in 2017, Elizabeth Allan in 2013, Tracy Yang in 2011, and Deep Shah and Kate Vyborny in 2008.

For more information on the UGA Morehead Honors College and the Foundation Fellowship, visit honors.uga.edu. For more information on the Rhodes Scholarship, visit www.rhodesscholar.org.

UGA one of 3 public universities to receive Rhodes Scholar, only institution in Georgia

University of Georgia student Natalie Navarrete was named a 2023 Rhodes Scholar this weekend, joining recipients from 64 countries around the world.

Navarrete’s achievement makes UGA one of only three public universities in the U.S., in addition to the nation’s service academies, to have a Rhodes recipient and the only institution in Georgia this year.

The Rhodes Scholarship is the oldest and most celebrated international fellowship award in the world. The 2023 Rhodes Scholars will begin their various courses of study as graduate students at the University of Oxford in October.

Navarrete is a current Morehead Honors College student and Foundation Fellow at UGA.

“The University of Georgia is incredibly proud of Natalie for this extraordinary achievement,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “Her success in being selected for one of the most competitive scholarships in the world is a testament to her tremendous talent and drive and to the world-class educational opportunities that UGA provides our students. I am confident she will continue to make important contributions to our society through her program at Oxford University and throughout her career.”

Navarrete, a Stamps Scholar from Boca Raton, Florida, is a senior in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Public and International Affairs, majoring in international affairs, Russian and Spanish with a minor in Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

“I join the entire University of Georgia family in congratulating Natalie on her distinction as a Rhodes Scholar,” said S. Jack Hu, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “She joins an impressive number of UGA students selected for this prestigious honor, which speaks to the excellence of our academic programs. I also am grateful to the faculty and staff of the Morehead Honors College and across campus who supported her and helped make her success possible.”

At the University of Oxford, Navarrete plans to pursue a master’s degree in Russian and East European studies and expand her research, which explores how criminal organizations in Central Asia evolved their smuggling strategies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. She welcomes the challenge to move her Russian proficiency into a more academic realm, she said, after focusing on language skills meant for the professional world through the Russian Flagship Program at UGA.

Navarrete started this year in England, studying European politics and Russian and Spanish literature at the University of Oxford. She then traveled to Italy in March to study political philosophy through the Cortona Partnership Program. Over the summer, she participated in the UGA Intensive Summer Immersion in Russian Language and Area Studies in Hawaii. In September, she flew to Kazakhstan as a 2022 Boren Scholar to complete her Russian Flagship capstone year at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University.

Navarrete has researched Russian holistic investment in Latin America, post-COVID smuggling related to Latin America, the influence of Russian media on Latin American security policy, immigration reform, and crisis diplomacy related to the Crimean annexation.

Through the Russian Flagship Program, she has served as the internship and opportunity coordinator at UGA, the culture special interest group chair in Hawaii, a representative at the Hack the Language Flagship Through Game Design in Seattle, and a scholar at a symposium on environmental and social justice on Sapelo Island.

Through the Honors in Washington internship program, Navarrete interned for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence and for the Office of Congressman Ted Deutch in summer 2021. She was a contributor to the Hill Happenings Blog.

Navarrete has been a legislative fellow for State Rep. Spencer Frye; a security leadership program scholar for the Center for International Trade and Security; and director of the Latin American team for GroundBreakers, which advances communities through a global network of local leaders. She also participated in UGA Undergraduate Mock Trial and the UGA Russian Club.

In addition to the University of Georgia, other public institutions having Rhodes Scholars this year were Arizona State and the University of Texas at Austin. Other recent UGA Rhodes Scholars have included Phaidra Buchanan in 2021, Laura Courchesne in 2017, Elizabeth Allan in 2013, Tracy Yang in 2011, and Deep Shah and Kate Vyborny in 2008.

For more information on the UGA Morehead Honors College and the Foundation Fellowship, visit honors.uga.edu. For more information on the Rhodes Scholarship, visit www.rhodesscholar.org.