CU Student Wins Prestigious Rhodes Scholarship

BOULDER, CO -- University of Colorado-Boulder senior Serene Singh has been named to the 2019 class of Rhodes Scholars. The prestigious award is given to just 36 students nationwide each year. Awardees are given scholarships covering all expenses for at least two years of study at Oxford. Singh is the first CU-Boulder student to win the award since 1993.

A Colorado Springs native, Singh is majoring in journalism and political science with a minor in leadership studies. As a Truman Scholar, she is Chief Justice of the Student Government Supreme Court, Founder and Chair of the National Sikh Youth Program, founder of a nonprofit to empower at-risk women, cochair of the Colorado Youth Advisory Council, and President of the University’s Indian Student Association. She is the first woman of color, as well as the first Sikh-American to win the award.

Singh's senior thesis focuses on on media representation of Sikhs. She is currently an intern for the Obama Foundation where she works with Michelle Obama and created the Global Girls Ambassador Program.

At Oxford, Singh plans to pursue masters degrees in criminology and criminal justice, and evidence-based social intervention and policy evaluation.

The Rhodes Scholarships were created in 1902 as a part of the will of Cecil Rhodes, who was a British businessman and Oxford alum as well as the prime minister of the Cape Colony, located in what is now South Africa.

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