Villanova helped to send track and field star Nnenna Lynch to the school's first Rhodes Scholarship in 1992, after she helped the school to four consecutive cross country titles. Lynch went on to work at Goldman Sachs and then to help set and implement New York City's economic development strategies.

Following in her footsteps will be a junior forward on the Villanova women's basketball team — Jessica Wamala was one of just 32 American students who were awarded a Rhodes Scholarship this year. The scholarship will allow the Political Science and Arab and Islamic Studies major to travel to Oxford, England and, "study any full-time postgraduate course offered by the university," over the course of up to two years.