Mary Orsak and Elizabeth Guo. Photo courtesy of The Hockaday School.

Two graduates of The Hockaday School’s class of 2018 were named Rhodes Scholars in the American Rhodes Scholar Class of 2022.

Elizabeth Guo and Mary Orsak are among 32 students from the United States who will study at Oxford University beginning in October 2022. This year’s class includes 22 women, the most ever elected in a year.

“We are enormously proud of Elizabeth and Mary for representing Hockaday globally, and for living out our mission to develop resilient, confident women who are educated and inspired to lead lives of purpose and impact,” Karen Warren Coleman, the Eugene McDermott Head of School, said in a news release.

Guo is a senior at Harvard University and majors in physics. She was an intern at the U.S. Department of Commerce, is a news executive of The Harvard Crimson and is a member of the Harvard College Honor Council and Phi Beta Kappa.

At Hockaday, Guo founded the Hockaday Physics Team. At Oxford, Guo wants to pursue a master of science in mathematical and theoretical physics and a master of science in social science of the internet. After that, she’ll enroll at Harvard Law School to work toward a J.D. degree. She has already been accepted through the junior deferral program.

“I am excited to combine by studies of physics, tech policy and the law and contribute toward shaping science policy in the future,” Guo said in a news release. “I would love to work at the forefront of science law and policymaking, particularly in the space of quantum computing.”

Orsak is a senior at Yale University and majors in Russian. She’s the managing editor of the Yale Review of International Studies and like Guo, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Orsak also directs Walden Peer Counseling, which offers anonymous, non-directive peer guidance to undergraduate students.

At Hockaday, she was the president of Story Power, Inc., a nonprofit focused on improving the lives of girls through the donation of books about and by inspiring women.

Orsak wants to pursue a master of philosophy in Russian and East European studies and hopes to become a professor of Slavic literature and art history.