UO Duck headed to Oxford on coveted Rhodes Scholarship, first time in 15 years

For the first time in more than 15 years, a University of Oregon student has been awarded the coveted Rhodes Scholarship for graduate study at the University of Oxford.

UO senior Nayantara Arora is among 32 U.S. recipients of the Rhodes Scholarship this year, which will fund two to three years of study at Oxford. She will be heading to England next fall.

"I was kind of in disbelief," Arora said about receiving the scholarship in November. "I felt an indescribable amount of happiness. I was shocked. I was like, 'Why me?'"

Despite her humility, Arora was a competitive candidate for the Rhodes Scholarship. Currently studying neuroscience through the Clark Honors College with minors in chemistry and global health, Arora conducts research in two areas: global health biomarkers in Tunisia and the relationship between the vascular system and Alzheimer’s disease. She is also a Stamps Scholarship recipient, which is UO’s most prestigious undergraduate scholarship, a full-ride, merit-based scholarship awarded to approximately 20 students per year.

Arora grew up in Portland as a first-generation Indian American. She speaks multiple languages and is fluent in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and English. She is also learning Arabic, Hebrew and Spanish.

The road to Rhodes

Arora first found out about the Rhodes Scholarship as a freshman at UO. During her First-Year Interest Group course, a Rhodes finalist was invited to speak with students. Arora remembered admiring that finalist but had never considered she would pursue the scholarship herself.

"As a freshman, it felt pretty distant and overwhelming," Arora said. "I sheltered (the scholarship) away in my mind and forgot about it for the next two years."

Last spring, she began getting email reminders about Distinguished Scholarship activities.

At first, Arora didn't pay much attention to them.

"I didn't really know if I was cut out for that," Arora said. "I read the profiles of previous finalists, and they seemed like almost superhumans. They balance so much with their academics and they had these amazing stories and they had a really clear idea of where they're going with their lives. I didn't really see myself in that category."

After some encouragement from professors and mentors, she took the leap and started the application process, which took months to complete. She said the most challenging part was a 750-word essay in which she had to give a summary of who she was and why she wanted the scholarship.

In her essay, she talked about her experience living about a quarter of her life in India, spending each summer in the country with her extended family, allowing her to experience both cultures. Her observations over the years offered her a unique view of health disparities, the class divide and common health problems.

"(I've been) able to compare not only my cultures but also different aspects of my life like healthcare in the U.S. versus in India," Arora said. "(In my essay) I also talked about equity and health, and what decolonizing healthcare might look like."

While at UO, she traveled to Palestine and Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Ghana through the Division of Global Engagement, further expanding her knowledge of global health. Her international travels were part of what inspired her to pursue the Rhodes Scholarship.

"It opened the world for me in that I knew that it was an option to be able to know and care about the health of other countries so deeply and that there's something to learn in each culture that you go into," Arora said. "I've been interested in, like, pursuing education abroad for a while because of that."

Last spring, Arora visited Oxford for the first time — before considering the Rhodes Scholarship — as part of the  Oxford Consortium for Human Rights program. Arora recalled a presentation on climate change and its intersections with public health as being especially interesting.

Colleges, majors and more

Following her accomplishment, Arora still has more decisions to make.

Right now, Arora is deciding between two master’s degrees, either in modeling for global health or in international health and tropical medicine. She is also considering a Ph.D. She said each master's degree would take one year to complete and a doctorate would take three years.

"The options seem wider open than ever, and that's really intimidating," Arora said. "But I'm really thankful for the opportunity. It's not a bad problem to have, I keep reminding myself."

She also credited the support system of her family, friends and mentors.

Arora will be the first Rhodes Scholar from the UO since 2007 and is the only recipient from a Pac-12 institution this year. She becomes the 20th UO student to receive the award since the scholarship was created in 1902.

She is also one of only five students to receive the honor this year who attends a state school.

"I hope that me getting this inspires other UO Ducks to apply and not get intimidated," Arora said. "There are so many deserving, accomplished, hardworking, frankly, up-to-par students at UO and other public state schools who should be able to leverage their experiences."

Miranda Cyr reports on education for The Register-Guard. You can contact her at mcyr@registerguard.com or find her on Twitter @mirandabcyr.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Meet the first Oregon Duck to be named a Rhodes Scholar since 2007