Mount Allison celebrates its 48th Rhodes Scholar

Fourth-year international relations student Susan Humphrey has been awarded one of the most prestigious international awards in the world, the Rhodes Scholarship.

Humphrey will head to England's University of Oxford next fall to pursue her masters of philosophy in comparative politics, with a Rhodes Scholarship valued at more than $100,000.

"It still feels very unreal and a little overwhelming. This is certainly a defining moment in charting the course of my life. So many doors have just opened up for me, and I am thrilled to be able to learn from some of the world's most renowned professors and to study alongside students whose interests fall in line with my own," says Humphrey, who received news of her award on her 21st birthday and is the university's 48th Rhodes Scholar.

Mount Allison has produced more Rhodes Scholars per capita than any university in the British Commonwealth.

"Susan joins an impressive list of Allisonians to receive this honour. She has taken advantage of the opportunities for leadership development at Mount Allison, both inside the classroom and out. She is one of the university's most outstanding senior students and I know she will be an excellent ambassador when she arrives at Oxford next fall," says Mount Allison's president Robert Campbell.

Humphry's involvements on campus include: a senator on the Students' Administrative Council, an international relations research assistant, co-president of the Mount Allison Young Liberals Association, and president of the university's Swing Society.

In 2008 she received a Killam Fellowship and spent a semester exploring domestic and international influences on Canadian foreign policy at Smith College in Massachusetts.

And she has held summer positions as head guide at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France and as a parliamentary guide in Ottawa.

Humphrey is one of two Maritime students to receive the Rhodes Scholarship this year.

Rosanna Nicol, who is studying at the University of King's College in Halifax, is the other recipient.

Each year, 11 Canadians are selected to join a class of 84 exceptional scholars from countries around the world.

The Rhodes Scholarship covers travel costs, tuition, and living expenses for two (and possibly three) years of study at the University of Oxford.