Eden Raviv from Tel Aviv and Haroon Avgana from Kfar Kama were announced as the winners of Oxford University's Rhodes Scholarship on Monday.
The Rhodes Scholarship has been awarded by the Cecil Rhodes Trust to students around the world since 1903. In 2016, the Rhodes Trust announced that they were including Israel in the scholarship. Two scholarships have been awarded to two students in Israel every year since.
Recipients of the scholarship are given full tuition, a living stipend, housing, airfare and more. The students must be aged 19-27 with a minimum grade average of 93.
"We are thrilled to honor these two exceptional Israelis with a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University," said National Secretary for the Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University Doron Weber. "We had an outstanding group of candidates, and the entire committee was deeply impressed by Eden and Haroon's personal journeys and clarity of focus as well as their extraordinary moral character, academic excellence, leadership and willingness to challenge received orthodoxies in a positive and constructive manner."
Haroon Avgana completed a BA in Psychology and English Literature at University of Haifa where he is currently studying an MA in Experimental Psychology. Avgana studied physics and computer science in school and was a combat engineer in the IDF. He also coordinated projects for Maayan Bamidbar, a project that bring Jewish and Arab students together. At Oxford, Avgana will do a doctorate in Experimental Psychology.
Eden served as a lone soldier, during which she served as a research analyst. She received a BA in Government Diplomacy and Strategy as an Argov Fellow at Reichman University and was president of the debate society during her undergraduate degree. She hopes to continue debating at Oxford, work as a research analyst and to pursue an MPhil in International Relations.