Westlake Village, California—“The Rhodes scholarship is awarded to people who want to fight the world’s fight and I was able to show the committee that the issues of bioethics are the world’s fight,” said Aurora Griffin after being named a 2014 Rhodes Scholar. “My proposal to the Rhodes committee was to use fundamental principles of theology to address emerging issues in biotechnology.” Griffin participated in a rigorous process, competing with more than 800 top U.S. university students. At the end of the day on Saturday, November 23, she was among the 32 who were selected as 2014 Rhodes Scholars—one of six from Harvard University and the first Oaks Christian School (OCS) alumnus to receive such an honor. With her Rhodes Scholarship, Aurora will pursue an M.Phil. in theology and Christian ethics at Oxford University.
“I am very grateful to Oaks Christian School because there I was able to integrate my faith and academics,” Griffin shared who was the 2009 OCS Valedictorian. “This has helped me throughout my time at Harvard and in the interview process for the Rhodes Scholarship. The committee wanted me to demonstrate that bioethics was the world’s fight and that I was willing to make the kind of difficult decisions that bioethics requires as this scholarship is about leadership. That was what was so beautiful about this process and how I could recall how I was prepared for this moment with the Oaks Christian motto: Preparing Minds for Leadership and Hearts for Service.”
While studying the classics at Harvard, Griffin has been living out the OCS motto, excelling in academics while serving as the president of the Harvard Catholic Student Association, leading a female Catholic fellowship, and developing a volunteer group of Christian pre-med students to service in a cancer hospital ministry. Another criterion for her Rhodes Scholarship award was her participation in sports. While at Oaks Christian, Griffin excelled as an internationally competitive show jumper. She was able to integrate her equestrian pursuits with her high school studies as part of the OCS mission is to encourage athletic distinction to develop body, mind, and spirit. “We are grateful for Oaks Christian School,” said Griffin’s mother, Marsha Griffin. “Oaks Christian has been an integral part of what has made Aurora who she is today. In Aurora, you have someone who loves Christ and is able to contribute to the public discourse in a meaningful way.”
