Santiago Tobar Potes ’20CC, who graduated cum laude from Columbia College last year, has received a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. He plans to pursue a master’s degree in global and imperial history at the University of Oxford.
Potes, who was born in Colombia and raised in Miami, was a John W. Kluge Scholar, a King’s Crown Leadership and Excellence Award winner, and a Holder Initiative Student Advisory Board member at Columbia College. He is also an accomplished violinist and an outspoken advocate for undocumented immigrants in the US who have received quasi-legal status under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy.
“Santi’s irrepressible love of learning, commitment to advocating for immigration reform, and work with vulnerable youth make him a wonderfully deserving recipient of the Rhodes Scholarship,” says Ariella Lang ’03GSAS, associate dean of academic affairs and director of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships. “I’m delighted to see his successes acknowledged in this way.”
