Phoenixville Grad, Now A Harvard Student, Named Rhodes Scholar

PHOENIXVILLE, PA — A recent Phoenixville Area High School student has received the elite distinction of being named a Rhodes Scholar. Just 32 students were chosen for the honor out of a field of 963 applicants that had been nominated by their universities.

The local honoree is Olivia McGinnis, a 2016 graduate of Phoenixville and now a senior at Harvard University. She spoke highly of her alma mater and how everything from Virginia Woolf’s "To the Lighthouse" and her physics class prepared her for Harvard and beyond.

"I had such a great time in high school," Olivia said in a recent interview with the district. "I don’t think I had a bad teacher my entire career in Phoenixville."

Her academic interests are wide and varied but focus on the intersection of art (her parents are artists) and science, and, specifically, cognitive neuroscience. She's the editor-in-chief of Harvard's art and science journal, "Ecdysis." After she graduates Harvard, Olivia will head to Oxford University in Sept. 2020, where, as a Rhodes Scholar, she will complete a Masters in Experimental Psychology.

“I am really interested in probing the question of what is the self," she said. "From the primitive, spatial models of self in zebrafish that I study in my undergraduate thesis, to mouse models or human patients that I hope to study, to understand the self as it changes in neuropsychiatric states."

Olivia's high school teachers were effusive with their praise.

“Teaching Olivia was one of the highlights of my career," said Jay Jennings, Olivia's physics teacher. "She was bright and inquisitive, and she showed great dedication and perseverance...but what made her stand out even more, and made her such a joy to work with, was her positive attitude. She always treated her peers and her teachers with such warmth and respect."

The Rhodes Scholarships were created in 1902 by the will of Cecil Rhodes, a British philanthropist, African colonial pioneer, and founder of the De Beers diamond company.

Scholarship recipients are chosen based on criteria established in Rhodes' will, said Elliot F. Gerson, the American secretary of The Rhodes Trust, which chooses the Rhodes Scholars.

In Rhodes' words, his scholars should "esteem the performance of public duties as their highest aim.'' In addition to the United States, Rhodes Scholars are chosen from former British colonies and Germany. Past Rhodes Scholars include former President Bill Clinton, presidential candidates Cory Booker and Pete Buttigieg, and many more.