Queensland's 2016 Rhodes Scholar is QUT Bachelor of Justice graduate Harriet Horsfall.
Ms Horsfall, who graduated from the School of Justice (Faculty of Law) with first-class honours for which she received five subject prizes, is QUT's fifth Queensland Rhodes Scholar in the past six years.
Ms Horsfall is currently working in Indonesia as a volunteer development advisor.
She has previously managed volunteer programs in Cambodia and Nepal, in addition to working in Nepal as a volunteer teacher for four months. This year, Harriet travelled to Iran for a portrait photography project aimed at evoking public discussion on women's empowerment.
Ms Horsfall intends to study for a Master of Public Policy at the University of Oxford's Blavatnik School of Government to build on her experience in international volunteering and NGOs.
"I hope to contribute to a global culture of leadership around critical NGO program evaluation and innovation," she said.
"I want to foster a culture of strong NGO governance and evaluation that challenges the notion that 'good is always good'.
"This will maintain my interest in NGO governance that I covered in my honours thesis on anti-human trafficking NGO ideology at the India/Nepal border."
During her studies Ms Horsfall worked with the NGO Brisbane Youth Service (BYS) where she managed a literacy and numeracy program for young people, many of them homeless, who were disengaged from education.
"Through my work with homeless and at-risk young people, I began a program where we used basketball as a means of engaging them in weekly numeracy and literacy groups to foster teamwork, confidence and group engagement," she said.
She presented a paper at the Australasian Youth Justice Conference in Canberra in 2013, based on her work at BYS, on creating new environments for young people engaged in the youth justice system to gain access to education.
When the program was threatened by loss of philanthropic funding, Ms Horsfall assisted in developing a social enterprise which, after one year, was subsidising more than 40 per cent of the program's outreach activity by charging select partner agencies for work with their clients.
QUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Coaldrake warmly congratulated Ms Horsfall on her selection for the Rhodes scholarship.
"QUT celebrates Harriet's achievements and we recognise her outstanding contributions to QUT and the community at large," Professor Coaldrake said.
"Harriet, as a Rhodes Scholar, will have a rare opportunity to use her considerable talents and drive to achieve her dream of having an impact on global social justice."
QUT's past Rhodes Scholars:
Brody Foy
Andrew Trotter
Amanda Rojek
James Tilbury
Christopher Layton
Thomas Ward
Ben White
Rhodes Scholarships background:
Rhodes Scholarships are postgraduate awards, founded in 1903 under the will of the late Cecil John Rhodes, for outstanding all-round students at the University of Oxford.
Eighty-nine scholars are selected each year from Australia, Bermuda, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica and the Commonwealth Caribbean, Kenya, New Zealand, Pakistan, Southern Africa (including South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia and Swaziland), United Arab Emirates, United States, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The qualities Cecil Rhodes set out for those seeking Rhodes Scholarships include: academic and intellectual excellence, integrity of character, respect for fellow beings and a capacity for leadership.
More than 500 Australian Rhodes Scholars have been selected since the scheme began. Women became eligible in 1972.
A Rhodes Scholarship covers all University and College fees, a personal stipend and return airfare.
Media contact: Niki Widdowson, QUT Media, 07 3138 2999 or n.widdowson@qut.edu.au. After hours contact Rose Trapnell 0407 585 901 or media@qut.edu.au
