Two Brown University seniors, Class of 2025 graduate named 2026 Rhodes Scholars

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - Brown University seniors Keidy Palma Ramirez and Xuanjie (Coco) Huang and Class of 2025 alumnus Nicholas Sanzi were elected to the Rhodes Scholar Class of 2026 on Saturday, Nov. 15.

Palma Ramirez and Sanzi were named two of the United States' Rhodes Scholars, while Huang was named an international Rhodes Scholar. In addition to the 32 U.S.-based scholars, the Rhodes Trust awards roughly 70 Rhodes Scholarships to citizens of dozens of countries across the globe. Huang is one of four Chinese citizens to be awarded the scholarship this year.

The Rhodes Scholarship, widely considered to be one of the most prestigious academic awards available to undergraduate students, provides recipients funding to cover all expenses for two or three years of graduate study at the University of Oxford in England.

This marks the first time since 2014 - and the third time in Brown history - that three students/alumni from the University have received the award in the same year.

"All of this year's Rhodes finalists and recipients show tremendous dedication to their scholarship," said Associate Dean of the College for Fellowships Joel Simundich. "Each student's stellar academic achievement is matched by their commitment to cultivating a more just society. I am so proud of each finalist and recipient and am thrilled to see how their work continues to grow and impact their communities."

Rhodes Scholars are chosen based on their academic records, as well as their leadership, personal qualities and demonstrated commitment to the betterment of society. Applicants are first endorsed by their college or university. This year, for the United States' Rhodes Scholars, nearly 2,800 students sought their institution's endorsement, with 965 ultimately endorsed by 264 different colleges and universities. Selection committees in each of 16 U.S. districts invite the strongest applicants for interviews, and each committee makes a final selection of two Rhodes Scholars from the candidates of the states within the district.

Palma Ramirez, Sanzi and 30 other U.S. Rhodes Scholars will join an international group of scholars, including Huang, from more than 60 countries around the world. They will begin studies at Oxford in October 2026.

Keidy Palma Ramirez, Class of 2026

A native of El Paso, Texas, Keidy Palma Ramirez is pursuing concentrations in education studies and social analysis and research. Her research interests are centered on using data and mixed methods approaches as a form of storytelling for immigrant and borderland communities.

"Becoming the first woman from the borderlands of El Paso to receive this scholarship is an enormous privilege and responsibility, which I am still taking time to sit with," Palma Ramirez said. "I see this as an opportunity to continue the gift of knowledge I inherited from my ancestors and using the Rhodes Scholarship to continue growing roots in spaces that empower immigrant and border communities like my own."

At Brown, Palma Ramirez co-founded the Brown Dream Team, a student organization dedicated to supporting undocumented community members, and has conducted research with the Immigrant Student Research Project on how immigration status shapes educational access - work that she now continues independently as a Royce Fellow. She's also served as a program coordinator at Brown's Undocumented, First-Generation and Low-Income Center and a tutor for the Brown Refugee Youth Tutoring Enrichment Program.

Since June, Palma Ramirez has served as an intern at the Pew Research Center, where she is aiding in the development and implementation of the 2025 National Survey of Black Americans and the 2025 National Survey of Latinos.

Her goal, she said, is to advance data practices that illuminate community narratives rather than rely on systems that risk obscuring them. At Oxford, Palma Ramirez will pursue concurrent master's degrees in migration studies and social data science.

"As a Rhodes Scholar, I aim to leverage data to build infrastructures of justice rooted in the stories of underserved communities, ensuring that technology serves people, not power," she said.

Nicholas Sanzi, Class of 2025

Nicholas Sanzi, a Providence native, earned his bachelor's degree in international and public affairs in May 2025.

Much of Sanzi's research at Brown, where he served as managing editor of the Brown Journal of World Affairs, focused on the origins of populist nationalism and democratic renewal. As a Saxena Fellow, he studied industrial policy and local development in Chennai, India, and he received a William R. Rhodes Fellowship to assist the rollout of rural broadband infrastructure grants at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in Washington, D.C. An oil painter and graffiti muralist, Sanzi was also the recipient of the Guiliano Global Fellowship, which supported his filming of a documentary about street art in France.

The breadth of opportunities Sanzi found at Brown allowed him to connect his academic interests with real-world work in communities and government. Most formatively, he said, he took time off the fall of his senior year to work on the Harris-Walz presidential campaign in North Carolina.

"Brown gave me the freedom to learn the world - to explore disciplines, follow my curiosities faithfully, and to understand the challenges we face as a country and international community," Sanzi said. "To Oxford, I carry with me that sense of purpose, as well as the inclination to think creatively. "

Sanzi spent the summer after his graduation teaching English and digital literacy at the Refugee Dream Center in Providence. Since September, he's been living in Washington, D.C., where he works as a legislative intern at the United States Senate. He will pursue a master's degree at Oxford, where he plans to study political theory to inform his goals for the rehabilitation of contemporary liberal politics and policy.

In a moment of political uncertainty in the U.S. and abroad, Sanzi said he hopes to help shape a future grounded in democratic renewal and public service.

"One day, following the example of my parents, I hope to return to Rhode Island as an engaged public servant, connecting local civic renewal to national democratic transformation for the communities that raised me," Sanzi said.

Xuanjie (Coco) Huang, Class of 2026

Coco Huang, one of just four Chinese citizens to be named an international Rhodes Scholar, is a senior from Shanghai pursuing a bachelor's degree at Brown in international and public affairs on the security track.

The news of her selection, she said, was as overwhelming as it was unexpected.

"I still did not fully believe it after I hung up the phone call," Huang said "It felt very surreal. Totally shocked. I am very grateful for all the amazing people I've met that have supported me, both in China and at Brown."

Huang's academic work sits at the intersection of journalism and humanitarian action. She has served as a research assistant and communications intern at Brown's Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies and as a Social Innovation Fellow at the Swearer Center, partnering with refugee organizations and state agencies to serve local communities in Providence. As a journalist, Huang has interned with NBC and contributed to refugee-focused documentaries at Voice of America through the Brown in Washington program - work she supplemented while living in Amman, Jordan, through the School for International Training's Refugee Health and Humanitarian Action program.

At Oxford, Huang will pursue two master's degrees: one in refugee and forced migration studies, and another in global governance and diplomacy.