On an early afternoon in October, bored but filled with the nervy tension that comes before an important event, Connor Emdin turned to Ayodele Odutayo and mentioned an Australian study he’d read recently.
The study found it was better to have an interview immediately after lunch, Emdin said, because people tend to be more accomodating just after they’ve eaten. It so happened they were the first two interviewees after lunch — fingers crossed, might they find themselves so lucky? Odutayo laughed, and the two struck up a conversation.
“I went in not expecting to win at all,” Emdin said of his grueling, 40 minute-long interview, which covered topics from economic analysis to epidemology to the minutae of a pharmaceutical company’s business activity. “So I went in just trying to have a good time — at least as much of a good time as you can have there and have a good experience.”
Whether it was this confident calm, the post-lunch interview effect, or simply their outstanding academic and extracurricular records, something worked in their favour. In December Emdin and Odutayo, along with Joanne Cave received life-changing phone calls: they had been named Rhodes scholars for 2013.
The Rhodes scholarship is one of the world’s most prestigious academic awards. Established in 1902 by the will of Cecil Rhodes, a South African mining magnate, the Rhodes is a postgraduate scholarship enabling the recipient to study at Oxford University for up to three years.
This year 83 students from around the world, including 11 from Canada, will travel to Oxford as Rhodes Scholars.
Representing the University of Toronto are Emdin and Cave from the Faculty of Arts and Science, and Oduntayo from the Faculty of Medicine.
For Emdin, who is currently studying biochemistry and who co-founded Salt for Survival, a student fundraising group for salt iodization programs, the Rhodes scholarship offers the opportunity to branch out and explore more of the social-science side of global health. He plans to pursue a MPP or an M.Phil in development studies.
Odutayo, a fourth-year medical student and co-director of the University of Toronto’s International Health Program, also intends to focus on the healthcare sector by pursuing a degree in public health policy.
Cave, a women and gender studies and sociology student, intends to research the non-profit sector at Oxford, building on her experience as founder of Connect the Sector, a networking group for young non-profit professionals.
All three expressed gratitude for the mentorship of their professors at the university as well as the university’s generous academic support and aid programs for assistance over the years.
“I’d applied with the support of a professor at Trinity called Derek Allen, who encouraged me to do it,” Emdin said of his decision to seek the Rhodes scholarship. “He said it would be a good experience even if I didn’t get it — just being able to apply was good, regardless of the outcome.”
Odutayo made special mention of Michelle Hladunewich, who initially took him under her wing in 2007, when he was an undergraduate at the University of Western Ontario.
“Among my mentors, Michelle stands out,” he said in an interview with U of T News. “It is because of her support that I have been able to pursue diverse learning opportunities such as working with the World Health Organization.”
University President David Naylor praised the Rhodes Scholars in a December news release.
“We are very proud of the accomplishments of these three outstanding students,” Naylor said. “They show great promise in their fields of study, and are emerging as leaders and innovators in Canadian society and in the global community.”
