Hadi Kamara ’26 has been selected as a Rhodes Scholar and will begin graduate study at the University of Oxford next fall. Kamara is one of 32 Americans to receive the prestigious scholarship this year and the sole U.S. recipient from Princeton University. 218 Rhodes Scholars have studied at Princeton since 1907.
At Oxford, he will pursue an MPhil in international relations. Raised in northern Virginia, Kamara is an Air Force veteran who transferred to Princeton after earning an associate’s degree in business administration from Northern Virginia Community College. At Princeton, he is a politics major, primarily focusing on international relations with a regional interest in Africa.
A member of Mathey College, Kamara is an active member of the Princeton Transfer Association and Princeton Student Veterans community, saying both groups include a “robust community of people” with unique backgrounds before matriculating to Princeton.
“Having a space where I could live shared experiences with both people who were older community college students and veterans made the transition a bit simpler for me,” he recalled.
Kamara, whose mother emigrated from Sierra Leone, also found community in the Princeton African Students Association and the Princeton Black Student Union.
“I’m an African American man and I’ve lived and navigated the U.S. and the world as such, so having that community as kind of a rock to sit on and as a pillar of support for my journey up until this point was also extremely invaluable,” Kamara said.
From each of the country’s 16 districts, the Rhodes Trust invited a total of 238 applicants for interviews. Each finalist was required to travel to their home district for the interview, during which a regional panel selected the two Rhodes Scholars for that area.
Khamara received the news in a room with 15 other finalists after a two-day interview process that split the candidates between the two days. When his name was announced, Kamara said he “paused for a moment just to take it all in.”
“It’s such an honor that it takes you back,” he said about the shock, although he knew he had prepared extensively. After the finalists congratulated Kamara, he stepped outside to call his mother. He described her reaction as “very tame,” adding “she had more confidence than I did in my ability to achieve this.”
Kamara is the second Princeton recipient of the scholarship this year, following Isam Mina ’26, a Rhodes Scholar from Jordan. The Rhodes Trust selects scholars from over 70 countries, and participating countries release their recipient lists on varying schedules.