Hunter College student Thamara Jean ’18 has been named a Rhodes Scholar, the first Hunter student to receive this prestigious award. Jean, who was born in Brooklyn to Haitian immigrants and graduated from Edward R. Murrow High School, is one of only 32 Americans selected. A Rhodes Scholarship is the oldest and best known award for international study and considered the most famous academic award available to American college graduates.
“Thamara Jean is an amazing story,” said Hunter College president Jennifer J. Raab. “She is an extraordinary young scholar and activist who will make her mark as a public intellectual. She attended a New York City public high school before becoming a Macaulay Scholar at Hunter, and she represents Hunter’s commitment to making the American Dream come true.”
During her junior year, Thamara wrote a senior thesis on the Black Lives Matter movement. It was recently published in article form in the Columbia University Journal of Politics and Society. Last summer, Thamara worked as a researcher for Prof. Brandon Terry at Harvard University, who is writing a book on the intellectual history of the Black Power movement.
“We are tremendously proud of Thamara’s individual achievement, but also of this important moment for Hunter College,” said President Raab. “Hunter’s recently-created Office of Prestigious Scholarships and Fellowships, funded by privately raised money, is modeled after advising services at elite private universities that guide students through the top graduate-scholarship application processes. Hunter has an exceptional student body and with the new services this office offers, we are helping connect our talented, hardworking young people with the opportunities they deserve. Last year, Hunter had its first Marshall Scholarship winner; this year, its first Rhodes. We are truly proud to be leveling the playing field with institutional support for these budding academic stars.”
