Valerie Owusu-Hienno, a fourth-year student who aspires to be a physician, researcher, and global health advocate, has been selected as a finalist for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, the oldest international fellowship in the world.
Owusu-Hienno is a UO Presidential Scholar, Clark Honors College student, and a Goldwater Scholar, a national award for undergraduates conducting research in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics.
She said she was “thrilled and shocked, and nervous at the same time” when she read the email from the Rhodes Trust.
“I am incredibly proud to be joining a group of ambitious students nationally who have been nominated as well,” she said. “Having this achievement to my name will help people understand the kind of person I am – specifically, my dedication to my goals of improving global health equity — before they even meet me.”
The Rhodes Trust, based at the University of Oxford in England, awarded its first scholarships in 1902. Each year, the organization sends 32 students from the United States, and dozens more from around the world, to the venerable university with full tuition paid for two to three years.
Scholarships for UO Students
The Office of Distinguished Scholarships provides comprehensive advising and guidance to students and recent alumni who are interested in exploring and applying to highly competitive national and international scholarships and fellowships to support graduate study and career pathways.
A directory of distinguished scholarships and a list of UO distinguished scholarship recipients and finalists are available on the office’s website. Students and their mentors are encouraged to contact the office at urds@uoregon.edu.
“It has been a privilege for our Distinguished Scholarships and McNair Scholars team to get to know and work with Valerie over the past couple years,” said Kevin Hatfield, Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Research and Distinguished Scholarships.
In addition to scholarly achievements, selectors also judge nominees on their character. Hatfield said Owusu-Hienno's academic research, community advocacy, public service and peer leadership exemplifies that selection criteria: “the energy to use one’s talents to the full, truth, courage; and the moral force of character and instincts to lead, and to take an interest in one’s fellow beings.”
The UO has produced 20 Rhodes Scholars since 1904, most recently in 2023 when Nayantara Arora was selected. Six Oregon students have been national finalists in the past three years and nine in the past five.
Owusu-Hienno will travel to Seattle Nov. 14-15 for in-person interviews with scholarship selectors. Her travel expenses are covered by the Undergraduate Research and Distinguished Scholarship Impact Fund, which is supported by over 50 donors with foundational gifts from UO alumni donors Todd and Sue Ringoen. The new class of Rhodes Scholars will be named at the end of the second interview day, Nov. 15.
Valerie’s intellect is of the highest caliber. She combines this brilliance with dedication, drive, and an optimistic, constructive approach to life. Valerie’s star power is obvious, and she is as worthy of the support of a Rhodes Scholarship as any student I’ve yet encountered over my extended research career.
Owusu-Hienno is majoring in neuroscience, with minors in biology, chemistry, and global health. She said she grew interested in public health, particularly maternal health, when taking classes in neuroscience and health and through her involvement in Students for Global Health, a student organization on campus. She learned about social systems that can cause inequities in childbirth and health outcomes and health practices that can contribute to poorer health outcomes in Black women.
She was drawn to epidemiology – the study of patterns and causes of disease in populations to prevent and control outbreaks – while attending the Summer Undergraduate Internship Program at the University of Pennsylvania in 2024, where she conducted biostatistical and public health-focused research.
Owusu-Hienno has been conducting research since her first year at the UO. As a pre-med student, she knew that undergraduate research was something valued by medical schools. She earned a research fellowship in the Hui Undergraduate Research Scholars program, a 12-month competitive research program, and worked in the Developing Brains in Context Lab under the mentorship of Kate Mills, associate professor of psychology.
She credits her academic success to a network of mentors she has developed as an undergraduate, who have demonstrated how to build a successful research career.
Her current research project examines how best to supplement thiamine (Vitamin B1) to mothers in Cambodia to reduce infant mortality from beriberi and to protect infants’ neuro-cognitive development. The research, mentored by psychology professor Dare Baldwin, is in support of her thesis in the Clark Honors College and the McNair Scholars Program.
Baldwin said working with Owusu-Hienno is more like working with an advanced doctoral student than with a typical undergraduate. She said she has shown a striking degree of leadership in her thesis research.
“Valerie’s intellect is of the highest caliber. She combines this brilliance with dedication, drive, and an optimistic, constructive approach to life,” Baldwin said in a letter supporting her nomination. “Valerie’s star power is obvious, and she is as worthy of the support of a Rhodes Scholarship as any student I’ve yet encountered over my extended research career.”
After graduating from the UO in June, Owusu-Hienno plans to pursue a master’s degree in global health and then enroll in an M.D.-Ph.D. program.
Owusu-Hienno has specific goals in mind for her career: She wants to work as a physician-scientist in her native Ghana, treating patients, conducting research to improve maternal health outcomes, and running a global health residency for medical students.
Specifically, she wants to develop an international residency program that places American students in Ghanaian hospitals. Such global health residencies are rare, she said, and establishing connections between U.S. and Ghana universities would help inform U.S. resident physicians about ethical best practices in global health and increase access to health care in Ghana.
Owusu-Hienno was born in Ghana and lived there until she was 8 years old, moving to Beaverton in 2012.
During her time at the UO, Owusu-Hienno has worked at the UO Health Center. She started during the pandemic as part of the Oregon Public Health Corps, which tracked COVID-19 cases in the community, reaching out to people who had tested positive, and sharing resources. From there, she transitioned into a peer navigation position, helping students get appointments and access services, and working at the Duck Nest, a place where students can go to relax, de-stress, and practice self-care.
— By Tim Christie, Office of the Provost Communications