Rockefeller Leadership Fellow Miriam Kilimo '14 Named Rhodes Scholar

Last week, 2013-2014 Rockefeller Leadership Fellow Miriam Kilimo '14 was named a Rhodes Scholar. The Rhodes Scholarship is considered one of the world's most prestigious academic awards, providing a scholarship to study at Oxford University.

In an interview with Dartmouth Now, Miriam Kilimo ’14 emphasized the skills provided by the Rockefeller Leadership Fellow program that allowed her to succeed. “I am especially grateful about how the confluence of my experiences as a Senior Fellow and as a Rockefeller Leadership Fellow implicitly prepared me for the Rhodes interview—I felt very confident about articulating my interests to the interview panel,” says Kilimo.

Miriam Kilimo ’14 smiles at a comment made by Eric Yang ’14 during an RLF session in the fall of 2013.

“I just found her thoughtful, introspective, reflective and full of fun,” says Rockefeller Center Deputy Director Sadhana Hall of Kilimo. Kilimo participated in five Rockefeller Center programs beyond the RLF program during her time at Dartmouth. In an email to Hall, Kilimo expressed her gratitude to the RLF program, “I felt very confident going in for my interview especially because the RLF program prepared me for the moments like those. Because of a different application cycle, I didn't have the luxury of a long application process or time to engage in mock interviews by various professors. I credit my experiences at RLF, the public speaking, etiquette training, interaction with high profile speakers, and even interactions with fellow RLF-ers - Joe Singh ’14 is the one who advised me on applying for the Rhodes - for giving me the confidence to defend myself before the panel of interviewers.”

Kilimo, who studied Anthropology as an undergraduate, plans to pursue a degree in Women's Studies with her scholarship at Oxford.

For more information, see Dartmouth Now and The Dartmouth's articles on Kilimo's award.