College students from San Diego, Chula Vista among Rhodes scholars for 2022

Sayeh Kohani, a Stanford University senior from San Diego, didn’t get the chance to study abroad as an undergraduate student because of COVID-19.

Now the University of Oxford in England awaits her.

The 21-year-old La Jolla native was one of two college students from San Diego County awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship for graduate study at Oxford next year. Also selected was Brown University senior Alexandra Ali Martínez, of Chula Vista.

Kohani and Martínez are among a cohort of 32 U.S. recipients, which includes a record 22 women chosen in a single year. The recipients were announced Sunday.

Selection committees from 16 regions in the U.S. choose and interview finalists before selecting two students from each region. The 32 Rhodes scholars are expected to start at Oxford in October.

“It still hasn’t sunk in at all. I think I was very much in shock and still am,” Kohani said Sunday. “I’m really excited to live in and learn in a totally new environment and meet people from all around the world.”

She described the high number of women among the scholars as a “huge step in the right direction.”

“It’s incredible to be a part of this incredibly powerful group of young women who I know are going to do amazing things in this world,” she said.

Sayeh Kohani

Sayeh Kohani, of San Diego, is one of 32 U.S. recipients of the prestigious Rhodes Scholarships.

(Clara Everett)

An alumna of La Jolla’s The Bishop School, Kohani is majoring in bioengineering, with a minor in public policy. Her academic work and lab research focus on the neuro wiring that drives cognitive processes, such as memory, sight and smell.

Last fall, she founded NeuroConnect, which pairs college students from across the state with memory care and assisted-living facility residents with neurodegenerative disorders. The goal is to combat the negative impacts of social isolation on the progression of the residents’ disorders, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kohani said.

For Kohani, it’s personal. Her grandmother had Parkinson’s disease. When Kohani left for college, her grandmother’s condition rapidly declined. “I think it had a lot to do with being alone,” Kohani said. Her grandmother died in 2019 while Kohani was a freshman in college.

At Oxford, Kohani plans to study physiology, anatomy and genetics, as well as evidence-based social intervention and policy evaluation.

“I think I’ve always been interested in the intersection of science and policy,” Kohani said. Social factors often are tied to health, she said, and the fields of science and policy need to address disparate health outcomes, such as the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on the death toll among Latino immigrant men and women, as a University of Southern California study showed.

Alexandra Ali Martínez

Alexandra Ali Martinez, of Chula Vista, is one of the 32 U.S. recipients of the prestigious Rhodes Scholarships.

(Ivonne Martinez
)

The product of an immigrant family from Mexico, Martínez, 21, is majoring in international and public affairs, as well as Latin American and Caribbean studies. Her honors theses include an oral history project that focuses on families living at the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as an ethnography on the impacts of U.S. policies on migrant children.

Martínez, who runs cross country and track for Brown, has worked with international organizations and done extensive work in public interest law, with a focus on immigration justice reform.

“I’m primarily motivated to help the community that raised me,” the Olympian High School alumna said. “My research — both the oral history and ethnography — really prioritizes the narratives and stories of our communities, particularly the stories of our migrant communities as a mode to critically reimagine our immigration and global migration systems.”

Migrants’ stories allow people to treat them with humanity instead of marginalizing and criminalizing them, she added.

At Oxford, Martínez plans to pursue a doctoral degree in migration studies.

“I’d like to expand my horizons to address global migratory issues,” she said. “This scholarship came at a perfect time for me as I expand, or grow, as a leader.”

Martínez, who is president of the Brown Pre-Law Society student group, hopes to one day attend law school and work in international and human rights law.

Martínez said she was proud to be part of a historic cohort.

“I am always continuously inspired by the women who are leading valiant efforts to improve the lives of people around the world,” she said.