Sam Hershberger ’24 has been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University next fall. Hershberger is one of 32 Americans to receive this prestigious scholarship and the only recipient from Princeton University.
With Hershberger’s selection, the Rhodes Program has added a student with a strong interest in foreign policy. “I was interested in continuing in foreign policy,” Hershberger told The Daily Princetonian in an interview about why he applied for the Rhodes Scholarship. [his] A study on Turkey’s economic and political relations with Azerbaijan and Central Asia in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Upon learning he had received the prestigious award, Hershberger said he “felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude to the communities that have given me so much,” specifically mentioning his hometown of Cranberry, Princeton, where he attended high school and college, and Turkey, the center of his academic interests.
Hershberger is fluent in Spanish and Turkish and has advanced levels of Azerbaijani and Russian. Hershberger is a research assistant specializing in Turkish foreign policy at the Foreign Policy Institute. He previously worked as an international affairs research analyst at Bechtel, an international construction and engineering company; a research assistant at Newlines Institute for Strategic Policy, a think tank in Washington, DC; and a research assistant at Evergreen Strategies Group in Washington, DC. Hershberger frequently posts about his international travels on X. accountHe traveled to the Balkans, the Near East, and South America.
He writes foreign policy analysis for the Newlines Institute, including analysis of the proposed U.S.-Uzbekistan partnership and the challenges of Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine, often taking a global, pragmatic view of U.S. engagement with the world.
A history major, Hershberger is pursuing three qualifications in History and Diplomacy Practice, Near Eastern Studies, and Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, which will allow him to continue these studies while earning a Master of Philosophy in History in Modern European History at Oxford University.
He said he was interested in the program because Oxford has “top professors in history and Russian and East European studies,” specifically mentioning “Professors David Priestland and Zbig Wojnowski.” [who] Conducted research on a similar topic and period [his] its own interests in Türkiye and the Soviet Union during and after the Cold War;
He received the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence in September 2022.
Like Hershberger, Marie Rose Shanerman (Class of ’23), Princeton’s only Rhodes Scholar last year, was a history student and member of the Terrace F Club.
Shanerman is the former editor-in-chief of Prince magazine.
Established in 1902 by Cecil Rhodes’ will, the Rhodes Scholarship is a full-funded postgraduate scholarship enabling students to study at Oxford University. Known as one of the most prestigious academic scholarships in the world, the Rhodes Scholarship is awarded to students who have “great ambitions to make an impact on society” and are “keenly conscious of inequality.”
Hershberger said he felt stressed during the application process, but that it was “a valuable opportunity to think about what to do and how to process it.” [he] I tried again [his] I spent a gap year and then the disruptive years of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond at Princeton.
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After completing his two years at Oxford, Hershberger plans to return to Istanbul, where he spent every summer and winter break while at Princeton, and work as a journalist or at a think tank.
When asked what advice he would give to current students, he replied, “If you can afford it, take more risks. Ask questions, listen to different people’s stories, be empathetic. Learn a new language. It will make all of this more rewarding.”
Justin Tam is a Prince news contributor.
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