Media Releases

Three students from the University of Toronto named 2013 Rhodes Scholars

December 4, 2012

TORONTO, ON – Three stu­dents from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to will pur­sue post-grad­u­ate stud­ies at Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty next year after being named Rhodes Schol­ars for 2013.

The Rhodes Schol­ar­ships are among the world’s most pres­ti­gious post­grad­u­ate awards sup­port­ing out­stand­ing all-round stu­dents at Oxford. Only 83 stu­dents from uni­ver­si­ties around the world – and 11 from Cana­da — are cho­sen each year.  The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to is the only uni­ver­si­ty in Cana­da with more than one Rhodes Schol­ar this year.

The three U of T recip­i­ents are: Joanne Cave, study­ing women and gen­der stud­ies and soci­ol­o­gy in the Fac­ul­ty of Arts and Sci­ence, Woodsworth Col­lege; Con­nor Emdin, study­ing bio­chem­istry and glob­al health at the Fac­ul­ty of Arts and Sci­ence, Trin­i­ty Col­lege; and Ayo­dele Odu­tayo, study­ing med­i­cine in the Temer­ty Temer­ty Fac­ul­ty of Med­i­cine.

“We are very proud of the accom­plish­ments of these three out­stand­ing stu­dents,” said David Nay­lor, Pres­i­dent of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to. “They show great promise in their fields of study, and are emerg­ing as lead­ers and inno­va­tors in Cana­di­an soci­ety and in the glob­al com­mu­ni­ty.”

Cave, a res­i­dent of Sher­wood Park, Alber­ta, has been involved in pub­lic ser­vice since child­hood. At 12, she found­ed and led Ophelia’s Voice, a girls’ lead­er­ship orga­ni­za­tion in Alber­ta. Recent­ly, she start­ed a net­work of young non-prof­it pro­fes­sion­als called Con­nect the Sec­tor. Ear­li­er this year, she won a Gov­er­nor Gen­er­al’s Award in Com­mem­o­ra­tion of the Per­son­’s Case for her work for women and girls’ equal­i­ty. She has done intern­ship work at Ottawa’s Cale­don Insti­tute of Social Pol­i­cy and a wom­en’s micro­fi­nance NGO in north­ern India.

Emdin, from Toron­to, is com­plet­ing a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence degree at U of T. He is the co-founder of Salt for Sur­vival, a stu­dent-run fundrais­ing orga­ni­za­tion for salt iodiza­tion pro­grams. His research inter­ests are focused on increas­ing access to HIV treat­ment in Sub-Saha­ran Africa and using pulse oxime­try (non-inva­sive mea­sure­ment of oxy­gen lev­els in blood) to improve clin­i­cal care in low income health cen­ters. At Oxford, he will study the rela­tion­ship between pub­lic pol­i­cy and health out­comes in devel­op­ing coun­tries.

Odu­tayo, from Bramp­ton, Ontario, is a fourth-year med­ical stu­dent who has worked as a research trainee at Sun­ny­brook Hos­pi­tal in Toron­to. The first 12 years of his life were divid­ed equal­ly between Nige­ria and the British Vir­gin Islands, spark­ing an inter­est in how to improve the qual­i­ty of health­care both in Cana­da and inter­na­tion­al­ly. He has served as the co-direc­tor of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Inter­na­tion­al Health Pro­gram (UTIHP) and interned at the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion.

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U of T Media Rela­tions
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