(POST MILLENNIAL) – 24-year-old Mackenzie Fierceton won the Rhodes scholarship in November 2020, but a tip-off to the prestigious committee kicked off a deeper investigation into the student’s background. She wasn’t poor and grew up in a wealthy household with a successful mother. It’s from there the story unraveled.
Not only was Fierceton’s scholarship revoked, the University of Pennsylvania is now withholding the student’s master’s degree pending its own inquiries.
The Inquirer did a story on Fierceton winning the Rhodes scholarship in November 2020. The paper was the first to reveal that a “poor” girl who bounced between foster homes had won the Rhodes scholarship.