The 2009 Rhodes scholars of the year, Mutsawashe Mutembwa and Sarah-Jane Littleford, will be part of the 200 scholars nominated from 13 different countries.Mutembwa, who obtained 11 A’s at ordinary level, and three A’s and a B grade at advanced level, was once awarded a scholarship to Indiana University, where she passed with double distinctions in Mathematics and Economics, and was awarded with a BA.According to Mutembwa, the scholarship to Oxford serves as a platform for her to study for MSc in Mathematics and Computational Finance at Oxford.During her days at Arundel School, she participated in extra curricula activities evidenced by the national honours in hockey, a sport which she also captained.She represented her school at hockey, and captained the Zimbabwe under-18 and under-21 teams in 2007 and 2008, respectively, before proceeding to Indiana University, Bloomington on a full scholarship.She was a member of the university’s women’s field hockey team throughout her time at the university.Mutembwa was involved in various activities at the institution, among them the Rotaract Club and the St Paul’s collegiate choir.Littleford, who intends to pursue a Masters degree in Nature, Society and Environmental Policy at Oxford, obtained nine A’s at ordinary level, and two A’s and a B at advanced level.Exhibiting leadership qualities at a younger age, Littleford was the school’s deputy head girl, swimming captain, head chorister and drama captain, having achieved a distinction in directing and producing the school play, Daughters of Venice in 2004.Littleford later won a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where she got double distinctions in sustainable development and environmental studies and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. She also studied Human Geography at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and she is particularly interested in environmental issues. As part of her degree, she wrote a thesis on the possibilities of jatropha curcas as a bio-fuel for small scale application in Zimbabwe. –– Staff Writer
