Stanford students Sydney Barta and Tatiana Zhang are recipients of the 2026 Rhodes Scholarship, which provides full funding for postgraduate study at the University of Oxford in England.

The Rhodes Scholarship is the oldest international fellowship award in the world. It provides all expenses for students to pursue two or three years of graduate study in a field of their choice.

Barta is a senior majoring in bioengineering from Arlington, Virginia. She is among 32 Americans selected for this year’s Rhodes Scholarship. At Oxford, she will pursue an MSc by Research in musculoskeletal sciences.

Barta has won multiple medals as a member of the U.S. Paralympic National Team and is the first Paralympian on the Stanford track team. She is co-president of Stanford’s chapter of Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society, and has earned academic distinction across courses in the sciences and humanities. Barta serves on the Collegiate Athlete Advisory Council for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and was elected by Team USA athletes to advocate for all Paralympians as the General Paralympic Representative on the Team USA Athletes Commission. Her honors thesis investigates the influence of athletic training on postural control strategies during jump landing. She is interested in a career in orthopedic surgery.

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Zhang, a senior studying computer science and classics, is from Hong Kong SAR. At Oxford, she will pursue an MPhil in Greek and/or Latin languages and literature.

Zhang has developed AI tools for public health and legal aid and previously worked at the Robin Hood Foundation and the NYC Department of Education. Passionate about expanding access to education, she has published a Latin textbook for young learners, built vocabulary games for Syriac scholars, and co-authored a white paper on equitable AI in classrooms. Her honors thesis explores the intersection of ancient Greek poet Callimachus’ poetics and Plato’s theories of poetry. An advocate for affordable housing and strengthening the social safety net, Zhang is interested in a career in public interest law, specifically impact litigation and legislative advocacy.

Stanford students interested in global scholarships and Stanford faculty interested in nominating students for such awards should contact the Office of Global Scholarships at globalscholarships@stanford.edu.