Feature: Rhodes to Success
Natalie Navarrete didn’t know Russian when she came to the University of Georgia. Now, she has studied it around the globe.
Navarrete graduated in spring 2023 with several new stamps in her passport, as well as bachelor’s degrees in international affairs, Russian and Spanish, and a minor in Latin American and Caribbean studies. She capped off her academic career at UGA as a 2023 Rhodes Scholar, receiving the oldest and most celebrated international fellowship in the world.
“Coming to UGA and learning Russian without knowing a single letter in the alphabet was incredibly difficult, but also very rewarding,” said Navarrete, who studied in the university’s Russian Flagship Program, housed in the Mary Frances Early College of Education’s Department of Language and Literacy Education in collaboration with Franklin College’s Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies.