Newark Native Shares His Journey to Rhodes Scholar

Steve Adubato goes One-on-One with Jordan Thomas, Newark Rhodes Scholar, to share his personal story and how he aims to be an inspiration to others, especially those who grew up in his home town of Newark, NJ.

9/27/18 #2169

Excerpt:

"Jordan Thomas, a Rhodes Scholar, a graduate of Princeton...? Princeton. ...University. Born and raised in the Ironbound section of the city, and you went to what high school? To University High School, South Side. You are about to embark on a fascinating, very rare experience. Very few of us... very few students who come from Newark, New Jersey are Rhodes Scholars. Yeah. You're about to go to Oxford? Yup. I sure am. Describe that. It's extremely exciting, you know, being a part of the Rhodes Network. It's a scholarship that gives you fully paid tuition to study at the University of Oxford in England, and very flexible options for you. You essentially have the entire course offerings at Oxford available to you. So I've decided, in the first year, I'll study policy evaluation and get a master's in that. And in the second year, still sort of keeping my options open, but it'll probably either be an MBA or an MPP, Master's in Public Policy, and then you have other students there who are studying for a doctorate, students there who are doing two-year master's, rather than one-year master's. And so it's essentially a network of individuals who are striving to better themselves in a way that allows them to... in line with the mission of the scholarship, fight the world's fight. Right? So we all have the social impact that we want to have on the world, and it's part of being this network, and having these opportunities available to you, that allow you to do that. And so I'm just so excited to think about what I'm about to embark on, and the way that I'm about to develop, to really allow me to have an impact on people in the world, in the way that I want to. You're also gonna be heading to Yale Law School? To Yale Law School. And so I've decided that that's part of how I want to have my impact in the world is I want to do it through law and policy, and so in addition to applying to the Rhodes Scholarship, I decided that I wanted to go right in and apply to law school, and that was my dream school. It's the number one school in the country. So... Yeah, I'd say so. I'm a Rutgers guy. but you know... [laughter] I get it. Yale. Ironically, when I met you, it was at a conference that was being held around the corner at Rutgers? Yes. And Cory Booker was standing about 10-15 feet away when I first met you. [laughter] Cory Booker, a young man who... in the United... is in the United States Senate, may, in fact..."