For the first time in University of Maryland, Baltimore County history, a UMBC student, Naomi Mburu, has been selected to receive the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.
The oldest international scholarship in the world, The Rhodes Scholarship was established in 1902. Students are selected each year from a pool of applicants that includes students from 320 United States Universities and colleges.
Mburu, senior chemical engineering major, is one of 32 students out of the 866 applicants to receive the award for the 2018 academic year. A Meyerhoff Scholar, MARC U*STAR Trainee, and a peer mentor for freshmen and sophomores pursuing chemical engineering and physics, Mburu is a first generation American. Her parents immigrated from Kenya.
According to the Baltimore Sun, “Hrabowski … got goosebumps and tears in his eyes when he learned Mburu had been selected. He was one of the school officials who recruited her to UMBC, with the promise that she would be able to attend any graduate school of her choosing afterward.”
Mburu’s future plans include pursuing a Ph.D. in engineering science at the University of Oxford.
