OXFORD, United Kingdom – Mandela Patrick of the Harvard men's squash team was named the 2018 Commonwealth Caribbean Rhodes Scholar. He was awarded the prestigious honor out of the nine candidates from the region. 

Starting in October of 2018, Patrick will spend two years completing master's degrees in computer science and statistics. 

Established in 1902 by the will of British philanthropist Cecil Rhodes, Rhodes Scholars are given the opportunity to study at the University of Oxford with all expenses covered for two to three years. Winners are chosen based on academic achievement, personal integrity and leadership potential. 

At Harvard, the San Fernando, Trinidad native is a is a four-year varsity squash player with a 3.748 GPA. During the 2016-17 competition year, Patrick went 4-3 in matches, including a 3-0 sweep over Brown's Alexander Chase at No. 8 on February 11. 

"We're enormously proud, but that's a collective pride, it's department and university-wide," said Mike Way, the Gregory Lee '87 and Russell Ball '88 Endowed Coach for Squash at Harvard University. "When he applied I said to him 'I just have a good feeling about this,' because I've never known anyone who has had his set of skills, his set of confidence, just his whole character. There was something about him where I knew he was going to go right to the very end of this process."