Three Yalies are Oxford-bound as Rhodes Scholars

A Yale College senior and two recent graduates will study at the University of Oxford in England next year as winners of the Rhodes Scholarships.

Olivia A. Klevorn ’17, Hannah K. Carrese ’16, and Noah Remnick ’15 are among 32 American men and women chosen from 882 students endorsed by 311 colleges and universities.

Considered one of the most prestigious awards for international study, the Rhodes Scholarship was created in 1902 at the bequest of British philanthropist Cecil Rhodes. The award provides all expenses for two or three years of study at Oxford to those students who best exemplify “academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness and leadership potential.”

Since the program began, 246 U.S. students from Yale have received Rhodes Scholarships.

Profiles of Yale’s newest Rhodes Scholars follow.

Olivia A. Klevorn of Chicago is a senior at Yale College, where she majors in anthropology. Active in the performing arts, she directs the Heritage Theatre Ensemble, which presents the works of black artists, and is president of WORD, a student-run poetry association. Her mother was among the first African Americans to move to Ferguson, Missouri, when the city was virtually all white. Much of her academic work is focused on the problem of disinvestment in low-income minority communities and the resultant inequality in home ownership. At Oxford, Klevorn intends to pursue a D.Phil. in Socio-Legal Studies.

Hannah K. Carrese of Colorado Springs graduated from Yale University in May 2016, where she majored in humanities. She studied classics, grand strategy, and statecraft in pursuit of her focus on the nexus between political theory and human rights. Carrese has worked extensively with refugees and victims of human trafficking in the United States and abroad. She is currently on a fellowship in Mexico working on refugee and migration policy, and working with an NGO, Sin Fronteras, helping to settle Central American refugees in Mexico, and interviewing refugees and migrants in Mexico and the United States. She is a classically trained violinist and enjoys playing tennis, soccer, and hiking. At Oxford, Carrese will pursue an M.Phil. in politics.

Noah Remnick of New York City graduated from Yale College in 2015 with a B.A. in history. Since then, he has been a James Reston Fellow and reporter for The New York Times. He co- authored the paper’s coverage of an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, provoking major reforms in city inspection programs, and wrote an investigative article on persistent police abuse of transgender people, prompting changes in police policy. While at Yale, he was editor-in-chief of The Politic, a staff writer for The Yale Herald, editor-in-chief of the Yale Historical Review; he won many prizes for his writing. He is especially interested in issues of race and urban politics. At Oxford, Remnick intends to pursue a M.St. in American history and a master’s degree in public policy.