The University announced in November that Florence Onyiuke has been awarded a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship for graduate study at the University of Oxford in England.
A senior pursuing a dual degree in international studies and business in the Huntsman Program, Onyiuke was among about 100 Rhodes Scholars to be selected worldwide and among 32 from the US out of thousands of applicants.
Her senior thesis focuses on the informal economy and socioeconomic mobility of West African street vendors in Barcelona. It’s based on research she undertook during a study abroad program in Spain last spring, which involved “conducting interviews with street vendors, engaging with local university faculty, speaking with officials at the Ajuntament de Barcelona, and connecting with labor syndicates,” she told the Penn Abroad website. “I initiated and pursued these efforts on my own, driven by my passion for international economic development and my goal of producing a thesis with real-world impact. This experience deepened my academic understanding while sharpening the research, language, and cross-cultural skills that will support my long-term ambition of working at the intersection of policy and global development.”
Onyiuke, who hails from Altamonte Springs, Florida, has also been a Frederick Douglass Global Fellow, a three-year Perry World House Student Fellow, a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board, and the executive director of Black Wharton Consulting, where she’s focused on using local data to improve business outcomes for Black-owned businesses and nonprofits in West Philadelphia.
With her Rhodes Scholarship, which funds tuition and a living stipend for two or three years of graduate study at Oxford, she plans to pursue a master’s degree in African Studies followed by one in Sustainability, Enterprise and the Environment, according to the Rhodes Trust.
