Savannah native is one of two Georgia students selected as 2024 Rhodes Scholars

Two Georgia students have been selected as 2024 Rhodes Scholars.

Mariah Cady, a senior at the University of Georgia, and Madison Jennings, a senior at Agnes Scott College, are among 32 students from across the country picked for the prestigious honor, announced Saturday.

The students will pursue graduate degrees at Oxford University in England starting in October, with the scholarship paying for all costs.

Cady is from Midland, Georgia, and is majoring in Russian and international affairs with minors in geography, German and teaching English to speakers of other languages. At Oxford, she plans to earn two master’s degrees, one in linguistics, philology and phonetics and the other in refugee and forced migration studies.

Cady also wants to enhance her knowledge of other languages to prepare for a career as a diplomat, according to a UGA news release. She already has studied eight languages: German, Russian, Lakota, Serbo-Croatian, Arabic, Greek, Turkish and Kazakh. She is currently studying abroad in Kazakhstan through the UGA Russian Flagship Program as a Boren Scholar.

Active in numerous campus groups, Cady serves as president of the Native American Students Association and is also a member of the Russian Club and Georgia Debate Union.

“We are extraordinarily proud that Mariah has joined the long and distinguished list of University of Georgia students who have been honored as Rhodes Scholars,” said UGA President Jere Morehead, in a written statement. “I am confident that Mariah will make significant contributions to the world through her academic and professional pursuits.”

Last year, UGA student Natalie Navarrete was selected as a Rhodes Scholar, and the school reported it had had six other winners before Navarrete since 2008.

Jennings, of Savannah, is a political science major at Agnes Scott, where she’s also president of the pre-law society and a Carter Center intern. At the Carter Center, she’s worked to support civil society organizations in Liberia and to identify policing alternatives in Georgia, according to a biography released by the Rhodes Trust.

She’s worked to create mobile children’s libraries around Savannah through the organization Pop Up Library for Peace and is a ballet dancer.

Jennings plans to pursue two master’s degrees at Oxford, one in public policy and another in public policy research.

To receive a Rhodes Scholarship, an applicant must be endorsed by their college or university. More than 2,500 students began the application process this year, and 862 students received endorsements from 249 schools.

The scholarship’s total value is estimated at $75,000 a year. The first group of American Rhodes Scholars came to Oxford in 1904.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah native Madison Jennings named 2024 Rhodes Scholar