Second UNC Rhodes named

Senior Lisette Yorke almost didn’t make it to her interviews for the Rhodes Scholarship.

Yorke, who hails from Hillside Boularderie, Nova Scotia, realized Wednesday night that she couldn’t find her passport.

“She was a wreck, an absolute wreck,” said her boyfriend, junior Ron Bilbao.

But Yorke made it to the interviews in Canada this weekend without her passport — and won.

The scholarship, valued at about $50,000 a year, funds tuition, fees and living expenses at the University of Oxford in England for up to three years.

Yorke, one of 11 Canadian students to win the scholarship this year, is the 43rd Rhodes Scholar from UNC since the program began in 1904. Senior Aisha Saad of Cary also was named one of 32 U.S. Rhodes Scholars this year.

Yorke could not be reached for comment, but Bilbao said she is still waiting on a new passport that will allow her to return to the U.S. She is expected to return today.

Yorke, the daughter of Charles and Elisabeth Yorke, graduated from Memorial Composite High School in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia, in 2005.

At UNC, Yorke is a Morehead-Cain Scholar majoring in biology. She will pursue a master’s degree in immunology at Oxford, focusing on HIV-related processes, and might later seek a medical degree.

As part of her Morehead-Cain summer experiences, Yorke volunteered at a Rwandan hospital teaching English and organizing donations to families affected by HIV and AIDS.

“I left Rwanda with a commitment to the genocide survivors, AIDS victims and impoverished children who had given me a view into their lives,” Yorke said in a press release.

During her time at UNC, she created a women’s ice hockey club and volunteered each week at the N.C. Jaycee Burn Center.

She also was selected for the N.C. Fellows Leadership Program, a four-year leadership development experience, and has served on the student advisory committee to the chancellor.

Yorke prepared extensively in the weeks before the interviews, studying current events and academics and reflecting on her experiences.

George Lensing, director of the Office of Distinguished Scholarships, said Yorke was a worthy recipient of one of the world’s most prestigious scholarships.

“Lisette just has that complete package of activities, and the dots connected,” he said.



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.