WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Three Ivy League student-athletes earned the Rhodes Scholarship, as announced by Elliot F. Gerson, American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust. The three Ivies will represent the United States by studying at Oxford University, joining 29 other Americans chosen from 826 nominees and 247 colleges and universities nationwide.
 
Established in 1902 by the will of British philanthropist Cecil Rhodes, Rhodes Scholars are given the opportunity to study at the University of Oxford with all expenses covered for two to three years. Winners are chosen based on academic achievement, personal integrity and leadership potential.
 
Ali Martinez is a senior on the women’s Cross Country/Track & Field team at Brown University. Martinez is dual majoring in International and Public Affairs, and Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Outside of running, she has been a human rights intern at the Organization of American States and has done considerable public interest work with a focus on criminal justice reform and immigration. Martinez aspires to be a lifelong advocate to overlooked, underserved and vulnerable migrant communities worldwide. Her studies at Oxford will include doing the MSc in Latin American Studies and the MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies.
 
Sydni Scott is a senior at Columbia University who is majoring in Political Science, while competing in the long and triple jump. She has done immense work in diversity, equity and inclusion issues, including developing training for many universities participating in The Women’s Network. Scott founded The Amendment Project, an organization mobilizing high school students around the issue of reparations and worked to help ensure passage of a local reparations resolution in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her studies at Oxford include pursuing a MPhil in Politics (Comparative Government).
 
Michael Cheng is a joint history and mathematics concentrator while completing a master’s degree in computer science. Cheng was a walk-on member of the Crimson men’s lightweight crew team. His career interests invovle energy technology and policy as he has researched perovskite solar panels in Taiwan, urban development policy in Argentina and the history of energy transitions worldwide. He was recently elected president of the Undergraduate Council. While at Oxford, Cheng will work toward the MSc in energy systems and the MSc in Political Theory Research.
 
Additionally, Nicholas Thomas-Lewis, the captain of varsity cheer at the University of Pennsylvania while also majoring in Cognitive Science and Health and Societies will pursue an MSc in Evidence-Based Intervention and Policy Evaluation at Oxford.
 
The 2021 honorees will begin their graduate studies next October. The U.S. Rhodes Scholars will join an international group chosen from more than 60 countries, and two winners from any country in the world without its own scholarship.
 
The Ivy League now adds three tallies to bring the total to 163 student-athletes earning the prestigious honor through the 2021-22 academic year.