For Jennifer Stanley (’95), receiving a Rhodes Scholarship means having an obligation to give of her “time, talent, and treasure.”
Specifically, Stanley says, her Rhodes studies at Oxford “further reinforced my desire to ensure other students have access to the educational opportunities that I did.”
After she returned to Tennessee, Stanley turned that desire into reality in several ways. She served as a lecturer at UT Chattanooga, where she called on her experience tutoring undergraduates at Oxford “to build on skills I learned and mistakes I made—like waiting until the last minute to prep lecture notes!”
Stanley’s return to her roots as a Volunteer provides more ways for her to help students get access to education. She currently serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board for the College of Arts and Sciences, and she’s the past president and chair of annual giving for the Alumni Association, which sponsors more than 100 scholarships for students at all UT campuses.
Stanley put in a number of years on the Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee, helping provide applicants with “the recognition of and investment in (their) future potential.”
As she pays it forward, she thinks about how the Rhodes selection process honed in on her talents and pushed her toward her commitment to outreach and service.
I’d like to think they (the Rhodes interviewers) saw in me someone who took seriously a responsibility to give back to my community and to honor the support others have given me over the years,” she says. “I also think they saw a serious commitment to learning about others, about different worldviews, and maintaining an open mind and heart.”