CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — A Chesapeake student and fourth-year graduate student at the University of Virginia has been named a Rhodes Scholar.

It’s a rare achievement in the academic world, an opportunity to study at the University of Oxford in England.

Samuel Crowe took a visit to the White House with the other finalists. When he heard his name called, he was shocked.

“Honestly, I was in shock,” Crowe said. “I mean, I don’t think I really fully understood what had happened. I [just] froze — I was sitting down. I was frozen to my chair and like, instinctively I just stood up, walked over and started shaking their hands.”

Crowe was one of 14 finalists who applied for the Rhodes Scholarship at the University of Oxford. It’s an achievement that will take Crowe’s education to the next level.

“It will fund my doctorate in astrophysics at the University of Oxford in the UK,” Crowe said. “And so, that will give me basically three to four years of funding to pursue my doctorate. But what’s even more than that, even though it’s a fully-funded graduate study program that’s worth, I don’t know, like $250,000 in total when you add it all up, what’s more than that is all connected to the Rhodes community.”

Crowe then applied at the national level. He said the process was lengthy, but crucial to his future.

“[It was] a very long application process,” Crowe said. “I mean, I had to get internally nominated through the University of Virginia, which involved basically preparing my entire application, a personal statement, a CV. I had to get eight recommendation letters put together from various faculty mentors at University of Virginia. Also, [it’s] a wide ranging experience on communication and politics and society, law, all these sorts of things that will hopefully help me and my long-term goals of having a positive impact on society.”

Crowe is grateful to his support system who helped him along the way to his great accomplishment.

Long term, Crowe would like to work in science policy, better understanding the relationship between science and society.

Crowe will start school at Oxford in October 2025.