Rhodes Scholar Joshua Aiken Leaves WUSTL to Study Refugees in England

The Chronicle

Joshua Aiken, a senior at Washington University, grew up all over the country. His family moved from New Mexico to Tennessee, California, Texas, Iowa and Arizona. 

“It made me really conscious of what identity meant in different places,” Aiken said. 

He often found himself being the only black student in his class – and he noticed how only some of his teachers were sensitive to this. 

“For example, reading Huckleberry Finn,” he said, “Some teachers took into consideration how a person of color would take that experience.” (A main character in the novel is referred to throughout using the N-word.) 

Others did not. Since high school, Aiken has been on a journey to study more inclusive policies and practices around the world. 

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