US students studying housing, health outcomes and sustainability win 2026 Rhodes scholarships
Five students from U.S. military academies and three each from Yale University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are among 32 U.S. honorees named Sunday as 2026 Rhodes Scholars.
Five students from the U.S. military academies and three each from Yale University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are among 32 U.S. honorees named Sunday as 2026 Rhodes Scholars.
The group includes students focused on housing, health outcomes, sustainability and prison reentry programs. They include:
Alice L. Hall of Philadelphia, college basketball player at MIT who is also student body president. Hall, has collaborated with a women’s collective in Ghana on sustainability tools and plans to study engineering.
Sydney E. Barta of Arlington, Virginia, a Paralympian and member of the Stanford University track and field team who studies bioengineering and sings in the Stanford acapella group “Counterpoint.” Barta plans to study musculoskeletal sciences.
Anirvin Puttur of Gilbert, Ariz., a senior at the U.S. Air Force Academy who is an instructor pilot and flight commander. Puttur, who studies aeronautical engineering and applied mathematics, also has a deep interest in linguistics and is fluent in four languages.
Students will attend the University of Oxford under the Rhodes Scholarship Scheme, which awards more than 100 scholarships worldwide each year to students wishing to pursue two to three years of higher education.
Named for British imperialist and benefactor Cecil John Rhodes, the scholarship was established at Oxford in 1903. The program has more than 8,000 alumni, many of whom have gone on to careers in government, education, the arts and social justice.
