On November 16, Meredith found herself in Chicago, the city where the 2024 Rhodes Scholarship finalist interviews were conducted. After being interviewed by eight people for thirty minutes, the decision was made: Lehman was selected to be one of the recipients of the prestigious Rodhes scholarship. With her jaw dropping out of shock she accepted congratulations from her finalists peers, still in disbelief of the happenings of that evening.
The Rhodes Scholarship is a fully-funded scholarship for postgraduate students in the renowned University of Oxford. The probability of getting this scholarship is 3.7% as over two thousand students apply and only around 800 are endorsed by their Universities to actually go through the very rigorous and selective application process. The application asks for five to eight recommendation letters, an institutional endorsement, CV, personal statement, and an academic statement. “To go through this painful process it is necessary to have a reason. It made me think about what my goals are, and what I want to achieve. What am I interested in? What do I care about and why?” said Meredith explaining her perspective on the application process. Lehman decided to apply because Oxford has one of the best grad programs in the world for International relations, it also provides the opportunity for research and building connections.
Juggling between 18 credits and having only a month to apply to this scholarship was not easy for Lehman. It is possible to get the information from their webpage, however being the first student from EMU applying to this Scholarship there were many things that she had to figure out by herself. For instance, students from Universities like Harvard, which had eight Rhodes scholars this year, have a smoother process thanks to previous recipients of the scholarship and their personal guidance through this stressful process. Lehman believes that although this was a challenge it also ended up working for the best as she differentiated herself from the other applicants.
Meredith shared her appreciation for Eastern Mennonite University and its influence in her application journey. It has empowered me to become more of a leader and step into responsibilities that I might not otherwise have stepped into if I had been in a bigger school.” The small size of EMU allowed her to be part of different clubs like Student Government Association, Young Democrats Organization and work closely with other staff members getting opportunities like helping organize the Honors class curriculum along with Nusa G. After sharing their passion for fashion and sustainability to professor Cindy Gusler.
Furthermore, even though EMU does not have a lot of staff members, the small class sizes allowed her to get more personalized letters of recommendation as her professor got to have a closer relationship with her. “My advisor, Mark Sawin, was super supportive when I first said that I was interested in applying and he thought I had a good chance of getting it. That made me feel a lot better.”
Despite being afraid, Lehman applied and well deservedly got the scholarship. “I joke that I unlocked a new emotion because I wanted to cry and scream at the same time.” Lehman embraced the fact that she is from a small town, and small University believing that she will be a representative of a minority demographic once she steps in Oxford. Overall this experience allowed her to have more confidence in herself and fear rejection less, “I would encourage anyone, no matter how unlikely it seems, to apply for something like this if you want it because you never know.”
