CHAPEL HILL — Elizabeth Blair “Libby” Longino has interned with a microcredit program in Vietnam, helped start a group combating child prostitution in Cambodia and completed an Outward Bound Wilderness Expedition in the Pacific Northwest.
Henry Lawlor Spelman has worked in refugee camps in Tanzania, tutored underprivileged high school students and trekked more than 125 miles in Washington’s Olympic Mountains.
These and other highlights of their undergraduate years at UNC Chapel Hill have helped win both seniors Rhodes Scholarships to Oxford University in England. They were among 32 American college students selected over the weekend for the honor.
Longino, 22, the daughter of Gwen Longino and Joseph Longino, both of Dallas, Texas, and Spelman, 22, the son of Rosalie Spelman-Fallon of Swarthmore, Pa., and the late John Spelman, will enroll at Oxford next fall.
Worth an average of $50,000, the scholarship funds two to four years of graduate study at Oxford, depending on the scholar’s discipline. More than 1,500 students each year seek their institution’s endorsement to seek the Rhodes; this year, 805 were endorsed by 326 different colleges and universities. Selection committees in each of 16 U.S. districts then invited the strongest applicants to interview for the scholarship.
Longino, who graduated from the Hockaday School in Dallas in 2006, will pursue master’s degrees in forced migration and comparative social policy at Oxford. She plans a career in human rights advocacy.
Spelman, who graduated from the Hill School in Pottstown, Pa., in 2006, will pursue a master’s degree in Greek and Latin languages and literature. His ambition is to become a professor.
Since the U.S. Rhodes program began in 1904, 45 Carolina students have received Rhodes Scholarships — the second most among all top public research universities. This year marks the sixth time that Carolina has had two Rhodes winners in the same year.
Since 2000, Carolina has produced more Rhodes Scholars than any other state-supported university, and the ninth most of any public or private school. Over the past five years, UNC has tied for fifth overall in production of Rhodes Scholars, ahead of several Ivy League schools. Only Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Princeton produced more Rhodes winners than Carolina during that period.
“We are proud that Carolina is among the most successful public universities in America for producing Rhodes Scholars,” said Chancellor Holden Thorp. “Libby and Henry have distinguished themselves by excelling in the classroom and by demonstrating their impressive commitment to helping others. Both are examples of the great students we have at Carolina and the world-changing opportunities they enjoy.”
