Evans Becomes Eighth Rhodes Scholar from The College of Idaho

Kaya Evans, a 2021 graduate of The Faculty of Idaho, is one among 32 Individuals to be named a Rhodes Scholar this 12 months and turns into the eighth alum to win the oldest and most celebrated worldwide fellowship award on this planet.

Evans graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s diploma in political economic system and minors in pre-law, Spanish, environmental science, and anthropology-sociology, whereas additionally serving in scholar authorities and several other golf equipment. She was additionally captain of the ladies’s soccer staff for 2 seasons and helped lead the staff to its first convention championship and berth within the nationwide championship match, and served on campus as a scholar ambassador and a PEAK mentor. Initially from Pocatello, her senior thesis targeted on problems with voter suppression and since graduating, she returned to japanese Idaho to work on political campaigns.

Evans realized of her choice this previous Saturday. “They introduced my identify as a winner and I used to be form of shocked. I needed to sit there and course of for a minute earlier than I began letting folks know. And it is solely simply beginning to sink in.” She shared the information first along with her dad and mom. “My dad cried. And I believe I’ve seen him cry two or thrice in my life. And my mother was simply in disbelief. She simply stored saying ‘shut up, shut up, shut up.’ Then I known as my youthful brother as a result of he goes to the Faculty, so I needed to let him know straight away too.”

Greater than 2500 college students utilized for the Rhodes Scholarship this 12 months with 235 finalists. Rhodes Scholarships present all bills for 2 or three years of research on the College of Oxford, ranked because the no. 1 college on this planet in some international rankings. Elliot F. Gerson, American Secretary of the Rhodes Belief, calls the scholarships “the oldest and best-known award for worldwide research, and arguably essentially the most well-known educational award accessible to American faculty graduates.”

“We’re so pleased with Kaya and her dedication to being the perfect at every little thing she units her thoughts to,” mentioned Co-Presidents Doug Brigham and Jim Everett. “She has confirmed which you can steadiness a number of facets of life and excel in almost all of them. She is now the eighth instance from The Faculty of Idaho that you simply don’t should have be related to an Ivy league college to attain the best educational honor in our nation.”

Different faculties represented on this 2023 Rhodes Scholar class are Harvard (6), Yale (5), Columbia (3), MIT (3), the Armed Companies Academies (3), Georgetown (2) and one every from Princeton, Duke, Northwestern, Wake Forest, Texas, Georgia, Washington & Lee, and Arizona State.

At Oxford, Evans plans to pursue a Grasp of Philosophy in political concept and can start within the fall of 2023.

“Since it’s form of settling in now, folks hold telling me that this (Rhodes) alternative goes to alter my life, which I consider,” Evans mentioned. “However I additionally consider that the slower, however virtually extra necessary, altering of my life got here from the 4 years I spent at The Faculty of Idaho. And I imply that very, very sincerely. I’m so blessed actually, that I discovered educators there and a neighborhood there that cared to develop me past their understanding of me as a scholar, however they cared to develop me as an individual. I believe that was actually invaluable. If what I get at Oxford, truthfully, is a shade of that, it’s going to have been price it.”

It didn’t take lengthy for The Faculty of Idaho school to see the potential in Evans.

“On her very first day in my Plato course Kaya’s freshman 12 months, I noticed a Rhodes Scholar,” mentioned Political Financial system Division Chair Kerry Hunter. “My job was merely to assist her see it, to assist her uncover the depth of her knowledge, braveness, ardour and power. She has carried out simply that, and I couldn’t be extra proud.”

“I at all times informed Kaya she ought to run for scholar physique president in her time right here,” mentioned Girls’s Soccer Coach Brian Smith. “Although she didn’t embark on that journey on the time, to now see what she is doing along with her life and what she desires to do doesn’t shock me in any respect. I can consider no higher candidate to turn out to be a Rhodes Scholar. She not solely has the drive and dedication to succeed academically, she is aware of find out how to lead, affect and serve others.”

Evans needed to publicly thank all of these helped her navigate the Rhodes software course of, together with professors Jasper LiCalzi, Kerry Hunter, Mee-Ae Kim, Sean Blackwell and ladies’s soccer coach Brian Smith, as nicely school members Sue Schaper, Steve Maughan, Stelios Panageoutu and Rachel Miller who helped with mock interviews. She additionally thanked her shut pals from the soccer staff, Cam Coyle ’21 and Kylee Atkins ’21, in addition to her youthful brother Amari Evans (a junior majoring in political economic system).

“It is truly crucial to me that I am representing The Faculty of Idaho particularly, and Idaho particularly,” Evans mentioned. “There’s a tendency to put in writing off states like Idaho and faculties like The Faculty of Idaho, who folks in all probability have not heard of simply because it is so small. Which is unlucky as a result of it isn’t a mirrored image of the standard of the establishment in any respect.”

Apart from Evans, The Faculty of Idaho has had two different Rhodes Scholar finalists over the previous two years. Present senior Ian Clifford was a finalist for this 12 months’s class of 2023 and his older brother Andrew Clifford, who graduated in 2021, was a finalist for the Rhodes class of 2022.

Previous to Evans, the newest Faculty of Idaho graduate to be named a Rhodes Scholar was Amanda Frickle in 2012.

The Faculty of Idaho has a 131-year-old legacy of excellence. The Faculty is thought for its excellent educational applications, successful athletics custom, and historical past of manufacturing profitable graduates, together with eight Rhodes Students, three governors, and numerous enterprise leaders and innovators. Its distinctive PEAK Curriculum challenges college students to achieve competency within the 4 information peaks of humanities, pure sciences, social sciences, and knowledgeable discipline—empowering them to earn a significant and three minors in 4 years. The Faculty’s close-knit, residential campus is situated in Caldwell, the place its proximity each to Boise and to the world-class outside actions of southwest Idaho’s mountains and rivers gives distinctive alternatives for studying past the classroom. For extra data, go to www.collegeofidaho.edu.