Samia Ismail, a 2016 Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts alumna and a recent University of Arkansas alumna was named a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship, the world’s most prestigious scholarship to complete post-graduate study in the United Kingdom.
Ismail graduated summa cum laude in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering and a minor in Arabic. Ismail was a Harry S. Truman Scholars, which recognized her as one of the top future public servants in the nation.
Finalists for the award are selected from hundreds of applicants across the nation each year. The Rhodes Scholarship provides for up to three years of study at Oxford University.
Ismail, a Fort Smith native, was named Outstanding Biomedical Engineering Senior of 2020, received a 2018 Golden Tusk Award, and received a Public Policy Institute Underrepresented Minority Travel Grant from the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
She ultimately plans to attend medical school and work as a practitioner in rural Arkansas, while also helping to shape policy that improves access to medical care and health outcomes of rural Arkansans.
“I am incredibly honored to have been chosen as a Rhodes Finalist, and I owe this opportunity in large part to my advisers and mentors at both the University of Arkansas and the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy,” she said. “It’s very exciting that attention is being paid not only to my individual efforts, but to the larger subject of rural health disparities in America, especially upon underserved and marginalized people in these communities.”
As a student, Ismail was heavily involved both on campus and in the community. She pursued on-campus research with Jamie Hestekin, professor of chemical engineering, and completed an honors thesis under the direction of Raj Rao, professor of biomedical engineering. After her freshman year, she was accepted to a competitive research position at the Schepens Eye Research Institute in Boston.
She also held several volunteer and leadership positions on campus, serving as a member of the Honors College’s Special Events Committee, a student representative for the Chancellor’s Commission on Women, chair of the Distinguished Lectures Committee, vice chair of the Office of Student Activities’ Program Allocations Board and co-director of diversity and inclusion for Associated Student Government.
Outside of campus, she was heavily involved in politics, volunteering for several state-level campaigns. She is currently a Truman-Albright Fellow working for the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, where she has co-led a coalition including federal and NGO partners to identify best practices and funding opportunities relative to farmers’ mental health needs, the distributions of ventilators to rural areas during COVID, access to healthcare for diverse communities and other issues affecting rural health.
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