Mount Allison student Susan Humphrey named Rhodes Scholar.

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Hanne Armstrong

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"It's starting to become real," says Mount Allison University's latest Rhodes Scholar Susan Humphrey. "I'm really honoured and overwhelmed, but excited at the same time."

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Mount Allison University.

Susan has just become the Sackville university's 48th student to be awarded one of the most prestigious academic scholarship in the world. She'll be taking her place at Oxford University in England next October, where she'll be working for two or three years to gain either a Master's degree in Philosophy or a Doctorate in Comparative Politics.

Over the years several prominent Canadians have won their way through to a Rhodes Scholarship. CBC's feisty and cantankerous Rex Murphy took up his award in 1968, and distinguished diplomat and academic George Ignatieff, son of Russian Tsarist courtier Count Paul Ignatieff and father of current Liberal Leader Michael Ignatief, was a Rhodes Scholar beginning in 1936.

There have been over 7,000 Rhodes Scholars since the award was established by the will of Cecil Rhodes in 1902. Rhodes, an imperialist, colonialist and founder of the de Beers diamond mining company is remembered throughout the academic world for the Scholarship.

Rhodes' original endowment of six million pounds was designated for students from Commonwealth countries and the U.S. and Germany. German students were ineligible during the two World Wars.

Currently, 82 Scholars are chosen annually from 14 countries, based on the criteria of academic standing, extracurricular involvement, and character. Each is awarded travel costs, tuition, and living expenses at Oxford University.

"I had friends who applied last year, but didn't get it," says Susan. "And that made me think that maybe I was out of my league in applying. It's nerve-wracking to put yourself out there like that, but in the end I found that the process was excellent. Even if I hadn't won, it made me think about myself, where I am, where I want to go, how life works."

The process involved marks, references, a personal essay and an interview. It took only a month from the date of application in October before Susan was notified that she had made it to the interview stage.

On the evening of her interview in Halifax she was told that she had been selected as one of the two Maritime Rhodes Scholars who will take up their overseas studies next year.

"This will open so many doors for me that wouldn't otherwise be open," says Susan. "I don't have a definite career goal at this point, but I know that my horizons will be expanded while I'm at Oxford, and that will affect what I end up doing. I want to explore every opportunity."

Though Susan may not have a career in mind, her interests lie in the area of politics and international relations. She's in her last year of an Honours Bachelor of Arts programme, with a major in International Relations and a minor in Political Science.

In fact, Susan chose Mount Allison University because of its strong International Relations programme, though it may not have hurt that both her parents are Mount Allison alumni.

Susan was aware of Mount Allison's extraordinary history of Rhodes Scholars when she applied to attend the university, and the possibility that the school would prepare her so that she could become a Scholar hovered distantly even then.

Mount Allison has produced more Rhodes Scholars per capita than any university in the British Commonwealth, and more than any other liberal arts university in North America.