Two Yale College students and two recent graduates — who have both excelled academically and demonstrated a commitment to social impact — have received 2025 Rhodes scholarships, one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious academic awards for graduate study. The scholarships provide comprehensive funding for two to three years of study at the University of Oxford.
Sayda Martinez-Alvarado, from Leesburg, Virginia, and Angelin Mathew, from Davie, Florida, are among 32 American recipients, the Rhodes Trust announced on Nov. 16. Chriss Tuyishime, who is from Rwanda, and Tony Wang, who is from China, are among the international recipients.
The Rhodes Scholars chosen from the United States join an international group of scholars chosen from 25 other Rhodes Scholar jurisdictions (which include more than 70 countries) around the world, and two global scholars from countries in the world without their own scholarship. More than 100 Rhodes Scholars will be selected worldwide this year, including several who have attended American colleges and universities but who are not U.S. citizens and who have applied through their home country.
All of the scholars will begin graduate study at Oxford, across a range of disciplines, beginning in October 2025.
Created in 1902 by the will of Cecil Rhodes, the Rhodes scholarships are provided in partnership with the Second Century Founders, John McCall MacBain O.C., the Atlantic Philanthropies, and many other benefactors. Applicants are chosen on the basis of criteria that include, “first and fundamentally, academic excellence,” said Ramona L. Doyle, American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, in announcing the 32 U.S. winners. Rhodes scholars, Doyle added, should also have ambition for social impact and an uncommon ability to work with others to achieve one’s goals.
“A Rhodes Scholar should show great promise of leadership and character as well as an exceptionally strong commitment to service,” Doyle said.
Biographies of Yale’s 2025 Rhodes scholars follow:
Sayda Martinez-Alvarado is a graduate of the Yale College Class of 2023, where she majored in psychology and was in the Education Studies Program. Since graduation, she has been working at EdTrust, a national nonprofit committed to expanding educational access and opportunity for students of color and students of low-income backgrounds. There, she serves as a senior policy analyst for higher education, conducting research and policy analysis on financial aid accessibility and the role that social belonging plays in college access and attainment.
While at Yale, Martinez-Alvarado mentored students across campus and the country, with a focus on students from first-generation, low-income (FGLI) backgrounds. She was the head first-year counselor for Davenport College, an FGLI student ambassador for the Yale College Dean’s Office, and head advising fellow for Matriculate, a nonprofit college advisory group. She was deeply involved in the Davenport College community and served as head conductor for the Davenport Pops Orchestra. Over her summers, she worked as policy intern for the National Coalition for School Diversity and as a Yale Law School Liman Summer Fellow for All Our Kin. At graduation, she was awarded the David Everett Chantler Award.
At Oxford, she hopes to further her work to promote an inclusive education system that fosters social and economic mobility for all students by completing an M.Sc. in education and an M.Sc. in evidence-based social intervention and policy evaluation.
Angelin T. Mathew is a senior studying molecular biology and humanities (comparative Buddhist-Christian theology). She grew up in South Florida and spent summers in Kerala, a state on the southwestern coast of India, where her family is originally from. She was shaped by the cultural and religious diversity of both settings. Mathew has led internationally recognized research projects on socio-demographic disparities in the location of death, cancer treatment affordability, and emerging technologies improving the care of terminally ill patients. She has found her calling in palliative care and is currently working at the intersection of spirituality and medicine. She founded the Existential Flourishing Network, a global initiative to understand religious beliefs about preparing for a good death and the afterlife. She is also the founder and CEO of Forever Kin, a startup that creates self-care products, in honor of a friend’s legacy.
Mathew also cares deeply about youth empowerment. She has helped organize a Model UN conference in Korea, dances in Yale Kalaa, served on the Yale College Council Health Policy team, and volunteers with the HAVEN Free Clinic.
At Oxford, she will pursue an M.St. in the study of religions and an M.Sc. in medical anthropology.
Chriss Tuyishime, a senior who is majoring in ethics, politics, and economics (EP&E) and who holds a certificate in global health studies, expects to graduate in December. For his Global Health Studies requirements, he contributed to a policy brief on sustainable investment in the African pharmaceutical industry, which was published by the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs and submitted to a senior official at the African Development Bank. He is currently writing a senior thesis about Rwanda’s use of innovative aid modalities to complete his EP&E degree requirements.
Throughout his academic, professional, and extracurricular work, Tuyishime has been deeply driven by a commitment to his community. Whether serving as a college prep tutor in Rwanda, a marine student explorer in France, or a summer law intern in Washington, D.C., he has pursued global learning experiences and repatriates the lessons and resources he acquired. Wherever he goes, he carries the stories of his home in Rwanda and beyond. As a Rhodes scholar, he aims to continue this calling: to be another connection between his community and the world in the fight for a better, shared future.
At Oxford, he hopes to pursue master’s degrees in translational health sciences and in public policy.
Tony Wang, who graduated from Yale College in 2024 with a double major in Near Eastern languages and civilizations and the history of art, is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Asian and Middle Eastern studies at Oxford. As an undergraduate, he received six awards, including the CMES Libby Rouse Prize Fellowship for Peace and the Conger-Goodyear Prize for Outstanding Senior Thesis. He was also named a Henry Fellow, which provided him with a fully funded scholarship to pursue graduate study in the UK.
His research interests include the history and archaeology of the Silk Roads. He has studied Persian, Sanskrit, and several ancient languages, seeking to reconstruct the history of Central Asia through an interdisciplinary lens. He also has presented his research at academic conferences both in China and internationally, and he has published four papers in Chinese and English, with another forthcoming. He also serves as a trilingual (Chinese, English, Persian) editor for the Journal of Ancient Iranian Studies. His professional experience includes working as a research assistant in the Yale Department of History and at the World Art History Institute at Shanghai International Studies University. Additionally, he has worked as a docent at the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, the Capital Museum in Beijing, and the Tsinghua University Art Museum. His archaeological fieldwork and surveys in Silk Road countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan exposed him to the challenges of fragile educational systems and endangered cultural heritage. In response, he joined the “Guardians of Bamiyan” and “Guardians of Gandhara” initiatives, where he developed introductory labels of the historical sites and designed heritage preservation courses for young students. These efforts aim to raise awareness of cultural preservation and improve the well-being of local communities.
As a Rhodes scholar, Wang plans to pursue research in archaeology at Oxford. His ultimate goal is to become a globally engaged researcher based in China, exploring the trajectories of cultural interactions and developments throughout history. He has expressed a commitment to integrating archaeological research with public education, making the insights of archaeology relevant to contemporary society.
