Our Rhodes Lead To Brighter Futures

University of Georgia Student Mariah Cady is the 28th Rhodes Scholar in UGA History.

To say that Mariah Cady is determined, would be an understatement. Even though she is only 22, her list of accomplishments could fill a book. And, now, she’s achieved another milestone by receiving one of only 32 Rhodes Scholarships awarded this year to academically talented students nationwide.

The Rhodes Scholarship is the oldest and most celebrated international fellowship award in the world. As the only school in the SEC and one of only five state universities in the U.S. to receive the scholarship this year, the University of Georgia is also the only public university to receive back-to-back Rhodes Scholarships. Alumna Natalie Navarrete was honored in 2023. That brings UGA’s total to 28 scholars, placing the university in the top-3 for public schools over the last two decades. The 2024 Rhodes Scholars will begin their various courses of study as graduate students at the University of Oxford in October.

We are extraordinarily proud that Mariah has joined the long and distinguished list of University of Georgia students who have been honored as Rhodes Scholars
UGA President Jere W. Morehead

Mariah is a current Morehead Honors College student, a Foundation Fellow, and a Security Leadership Fellow in UGA’s School of Public and International Affairs. She majors in Russian and international affairs with minors in geography, German, and teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) in the Mary Frances Early College of Education and the School of Public and International Affairs.

“This remarkable honor is recognition of Mariah’s exceptional achievements as an undergraduate and a reflection of the excellence of UGA’s academic programs,” said S. Jack Hu, UGA Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. “I am particularly thankful for the faculty and staff of the Morehead Honors College and those across campus who have supported Mariah on her academic journey.”

At the University of Oxford, Mariah will pursue two master’s degrees: the first in linguistics, philology, and phonetics, and the second in refugee and forced migration studies. She plans to specialize in Indo-European languages and deepen her studies in Arabic, Turkish and Greek, too. As she prepares for a career in diplomacy, she said, her undergraduate degrees in Russian and international affairs and studies of eight languages (German, Russian, Lakota, Serbo-Croatian, Arabic, Greek, Turkish, and Kazakh) have provided her with a dual foundation in cross-linguistic communication and human security studies.

A scholar in the UGA Russian Flagship Program, Mariah is currently studying in Kazakhstan at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University as a Boren Scholar. From April to September 2023, she studied at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany on an international student exchange.

“We are extraordinarily proud that Mariah has joined the long and distinguished list of University of Georgia students who have been honored as Rhodes Scholars,” said UGA President Jere W. Morehead. “I am confident that Mariah will make significant contributions to the world through her academic and professional pursuits.”