student honors

For the fourth time in the College’s history, a CMC student was honored with a Rhodes Scholarship, the most competitive and prestigious scholarship in the world.

Bertha Tobias ’23, who graduated in December 2023 as an International Relations major with a sequence in Leadership Studies, heads to the University of Oxford in England to begin her graduate studies in fall 2024. Upon her selection, Tobias became CMC’s second female Rhodes Scholar, following Sarah Chen ’22, who became the first in 2021.

Born and raised in Namibia, she is also the fourth Rhodes Scholar in the country’s history.

Tobias plans to pursue two Masters of Science: one in Sustainability, Enterprise and the Environment, and a second degree in Water Science, Policy and Management at Oxford. Her interest in water science stems from challenges faced by her home country. “One of Namibia’s biggest environmental vulnerabilities is a water shortage,” Tobias said. “We have chronic drought and we just don’t have resilient water infrastructure to be responsive to climate change.”

At CMC, she was a Davis United World College Scholar and has served in roles with the Office of Admission, as a student representative on the College’s Advancement Committee, and with the Kravis Leadership Institute. During her summers as a CMC student, Tobias also secured funding from the Soll Center for Student Opportunity, the Kravis Lab for Social Impact, and the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies to produce the first season of her own television series, Spotlight, which chronicles stories of young entrepreneurs in Namibia.

The Rhodes Scholarship is the world’s preeminent and oldest graduate fellowship, with fully funded post-graduate studies at the University of Oxford.

Photo by Isaiah Tulanda ’20

Pieter van Wingerden ’24, a senior who studies Government and Asian Studies, is CMC’s 20th Truman Scholar since the coveted scholarship was established by Congress in 1975.

As an American who grew up in Hong Kong, van Wingerden experienced firsthand the important role our nation’s foreign policy plays in protecting and promoting international peace and security. Motivated by a sense of service to his country, which “has given me so much,” van Wingerden expressed gratitude to the Truman Foundation for “their willingness to invest in me as someone who wants to enter the public sector.”

On campus, van Wingerden served as the President of the CMC chapter of the American Enterprise Institute Executive Council and Vice President of the Alexander Hamilton Society. He has also been involved with the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies, the Rose Institute of State and Local Government, and CMS Athletics as a pitcher for the baseball team. In addition, van Wingerden earned internship opportunities with the Project 2049 Institute, the Department of Defense, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The Truman Scholarship provides funding for graduate studies and a variety of opportunities within the federal government for the next generation of public service leaders.

Photo by Anibal Ortiz