The newest class of Rhodes Scholars has been announced, and three of the 32 US recipients have Rhode Island connections. 

This year’s class includes two Rhode Island residents (one from Brown University and one from Harvard) and another who attends Brown, continuing a long tradition where the Ocean State punches above its weight when it comes to the prestigious scholarships (see the trivia question below).

Here’s a look at this year’s Rhode Island winners.

Yael Goldstein
Barrington
Harvard
A Barrington High school graduate, Goldstein is now majoring in philosophy and will head to Oxford to pursue a Bachelors of Philosophy. Here’s hoping she returns to Rhode Island because her senior thesis makes a philosophical case for a right to housing, a topic she’s explored well beyond the classroom through her work as a guest services director and case manager at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter. Just for good measure, she also performs performs oboe and English horn.

Nicholas Sanzi
Providence
Brown
Sanzi won a national essay contest at East Greenwich High School, and has continued to impress at Brown. He’s interned for both US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and US Representative Seth Magaziner, and has been the managing editor for the Brown Journal of World Affairs. He graduated from Brown last spring with a degree in international and public affairs, and will head to Oxford for a Masters of Philosophy in politics In his spare time, he paints portraits, makes documentary films, and is a triathlete. 

Keidy Palma Ramirez
El Paso, Texas
Brown
Ramirez is double majoring in education studies and social analysis and research at Brown, and she’ll pursue Masters of Science degrees in migration studies and social data science at Oxford. At Brown, she has been an advocate for immigrant and refugee students, and even earned a Royce Fellowship to support her own research project on young people living along the US-Mexico border.