Emory College students (left-to-right) Lydia King, David Lee, Elizabeth Martin and Lucas San Miguel have been selected to be Bobby Jones Scholars at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

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“Lydia King,

A Dean’s Scholar and Oxford College graduate who grew up in Rwanda and Kenya, Lydia King first cultivated her college community at the Oxford Organic Farm. The experience inspired her to start Oxford’s campus garden, as well as Emory’s gardening club on the Atlanta campus.

Her interest in her fellow student farm workers prompted her first anthropological study — ethnographies on the role that the work played in student mental health — and led to a double major in linguistics and anthropology and human biology. She later crafted a research project on the language of undergraduate reflection, which was presented in the U.S. and at Lancaster University in the U.K.

At every step since, King has combined what one recommender called a “profound ability to connect with people” with a passion for communication and public health to become a leader in several academic, community and research endeavors.

On campus, she served as a leader with Volunteer Oxford and Volunteer Emory, a tutor at the Emory Writing Center and president of the Emory Gender Expansive and Women’s Ultimate Frisbee team. King also volunteered with Open Hand Atlanta and the International Rescue Committee. 

Her interest in connections between place and health led to an internship on the education team of the CDC Museum in Atlanta, and last summer, work as a community engagement intern with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in Rwanda. She also works in the lab of Emory environmental scientist Tom Gillespie, conducting a qualitative analysis of interviews of community members and health care workers who live in the regions surrounding Gombe National Park in Tanzania. She received the Trevor E. Stokol scholarship for the project, as she expands her research for her honors thesis. 

King will pursue a master’s of research in social anthropology at St Andrews, combining ethnographic research and linguistic analysis on the study of zoonotic diseases. She plans to pursue a career in global health, promoting more effective research and communication between the U.S. and nations of East Africa.”

Congratulations Lydia!