UGA grad named Rhodes Scholar, looks forward to return trip to Oxford
Although Natalie Navarrete graduated this spring from the University of Georgia with degrees in international affairs, Russian and Spanish (with minors in Latin American and Caribbean studies), it’s likely her UGA experiences – both at home and abroad – will resonate with her for many years to come.
Last November, Navarrete – a native of Boca Raton, Florida – became the 26th student in UGA’s history to be awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, the oldest and most celebrated international fellowship in the world.
She’ll spend the next two years in Oxford, England, where she’ll continue her focus on Russian and East European studies and her research on nuclear nonproliferation.
Navarrete, who spent the spring of 2022 at Oxford University, is the seventh UGA student to receive the scholarship in the last 15 years and was one of only three public university students to receive the honor for 2023.
A UGA Foundation Fellow and Stamps Scholar, she said learning she’d be headed back to Oxford – this time as a Rhodes Scholar – represented “a surreal moment.”
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“I’m incredibly proud to represent UGA and I’m incredibly grateful for all the support UGA and the Foundation Fellowship provided in making this happen,” said Navarrete during a recent telephone interview from South Korea, where she’s spending part of the summer conducting research on nonproliferation issues. “Without the network and the support UGA is offering its students, it would not be possible for anybody to apply, get an interview, or be selected for this program.”
Navarrete studied Russian through the Russian Flagship Program at UGA, which enabled her to spend a year in Kazakhstan, and she became interested in nonproliferation issues due to her participation in UGA’s Richard B. Russell Security Leadership Program. Through the SLP, she was also able to secure an internship at the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence in Washington, D.C., during the spring of 2021.
“I was certain I wanted to do something in international relations or international security and I was committed to learning another language,” said Navarrete of her plans when she enrolled at UGA. “I continued learning Spanish because that’s the language my family speaks and that’s very important to me, but I wanted to take advantage of the flagship programs at UGA because they’re so unique.
“I knew I wanted language and international affairs, and the rest fell together perfectly from all the different opportunities that UGA offered.”
She also knew at a young age that she wanted to be a Rhodes Scholar.
“I was interested in it at that time because of the prestige and the opportunity to study at an amazing university and the support they give their students,” said Navarrete. “I’d heard about it in passing in elementary school in relation to Bill Clinton, so I was always thinking that’s the pinnacle of academic achievement and that was always the thing I was working toward.
“When I was going through the (Rhodes) process, I realized this was a real possibility, that it was tangible and could happen. It was always in the back of my mind.”
When she was in Oxford the first time, Navarrete took tutorials in Russian and Spanish literature and sat in on seminars on European politics and migration politics, which didn’t necessarily lend time for meeting other students. So she joined the women’s volleyball team at the university’s Keble College, which she said greatly enhanced her experience and made her eager to return.
“It was an incredible experience because I fell in love with the atmosphere at Oxford,” she said. “Walking through the city, I felt there’s so much dedication to learning, academic curiosity and curiosity of all kinds, and there’s always something fascinating happening.
“You can walk into one of the colleges for an evensong, or there’s always a formal dinner happening somewhere. It was just such an amazing experience and that was what made me decide to apply for the Rhodes Scholarship because I wanted to come back to that environment.”
In addition to Washington, D.C., Kazakhstan, South Korea, Oxford, and the country of Georgia, Navarrete’s UGA experience has included stops in Cortona, Italy, and even Hawaii, where she spent a summer studying Russian when the Russian war with Ukraine prevented her from attending a program in Latvia.
Once she completes her research in South Korea in early August, Navarrete said she’ll meet her father in Japan to “go exploring together” for a short time before returning stateside. Then she’ll travel to Oxford at the end of September, but not before she checks off three more personal boxes.
“I’m going to sleep, I’m going to read and I’m going to eat Mexican food,” she said. “I’ve been to many places and Mexican food does not hit as well as it does in south Florida. The Mexican food in Athens is good, and in the United States it’s good in general, but Mexico is still No. 1. Other places give it a valiant effort, but it’s just not the same.”
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: UGA graduate Natalie Navarette named Rhodes Scholar
