Mount Holyoke senior selected as Rhodes Scholar

Dec. 8, 2021 | Ryan Feyre
rfeyre@thereminder.com

Elena Frogameni
Reminder Publishing submitted photo

NORTHAMPTON – Elena Frogameni, a senior at Mount Holyoke College, recently received the Rhodes Scholarship award for graduate study at the University of Oxford.  

In achieving the scholarship – which is one of the most prestigious international scholarships in the world – Frogameni will be allowed to pursue two master’s degrees at Oxford – one in public policy, and one in global governance and diplomacy. The scholarship provides all the expenses for her graduate study at the school. Currently, Frogameni is a French and politics double major at Mount Holyoke, with a Nexus concentration in journalism, media and public discourse.  

“My initial thought was just joy, and then absolute tears,” said Frogameni, describing how she felt when she first heard about her selection. “My mind was blown. I never expected that I would have this opportunity.”

Mount Holyoke’s National Fellowships Advisor Ryan Lewis assisted Frogameni with the application process within the school’s Fellowship Office. After her application was approved by Mount Holyoke, it was sent to the Rhodes Committee for consideration. Frogameni found out she was a finalist for the district that includes Mount Holyoke, and then went through the interview process for the scholarship immediately after.  

Frogameni, who is originally from Florence, graduated from Northampton High School in 2018. During her high school tenure, Frogameni developed an interest in politics while interning for Congressman Jim McGovern’s office during her freshman year. She also interned in the offices and worked on the campaign for other Massachusetts politicians, including state Sen. Jo Comerford. She also worked with the Massachusetts Democratic Party and was named the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s Young Community Leader of the Year in 2018. She was also the co-founder of Northampton High’s weekly news broadcast called “The Transcript.”

Frogameni further developed her political and media interests when she arrived at Mount Holyoke. During her tenure at the school, the Rhodes recipient held leadership positions with the Mount Holyoke College Democrats and the Mount Holyoke Pre-Law Association. She was also the recipient of the Western Massachusetts Scholarship Fund, worked as a research assistant for Jon Western, Carol Hoffman Collins ’63 professor of International Relations and a video and media production assistant for college relations.

“Coming from Western Mass., I hadn’t really had my eyes open to the rest of the world,” said Frogameni, adding that she has not traveled abroad yet in her life. “But through Mount Holyoke … I’ve been able to think about global issues that I wasn’t aware of before coming to Mount Holyoke. It helped me transform as a person and a thinker.”

Beyond going for her two master’s degrees, Frogameni said that she hopes to learn from  myriad interesting people and scholars while at Oxford, which in turn will help her develop the necessary skills for the politics and international relations work she hopes to do.  

Mount Holyoke President Sonya Stephens could not be reached for comment as of press time, but she did have this to say on the Mount Holyoke website about Frogameni’s scholarship: “Elena?Frogameni is an extraordinarily accomplished student who is richly deserving of the honor and opportunity of the Rhodes Scholarship. At Mount Holyoke, she has grown as both an intellectual and an advocate, engaging throughout as a leader on campus, in her community and everywhere that her work and interests have taken her.”?

When asked what advice she would give to up-and-coming students when it came to finding and pursuing a passion, Frogameni emphasized the idea of reaching out to a genuine support system at your school.

“I really want to highlight how important connecting with the Fellowships Office, and connecting with Mount Holyoke professors who supported me, were in helping me see these things as opportunities for myself,” said Frogameni. “You can achieve anything you can’t imagine.”

With the selection, Frogameni becomes one of 32 Americans chosen this year to receive the award out of 2,300 college students. She is also one of 22 women selected in this year’s class, which is the most women ever selected for the scholarship in one year. She is the second Rhodes Scholar ever selected at Mount Holyoke, and the college’s first in over 25 years.

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