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Recognizing and honoring Southwest Philadelphia’s Anea Moore, a Philadelphia public schools graduate, for being named a 2019 Rhodes Scholar.
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WHEREAS, On November 17, 2018, Anea Moore, a senior at the University of Pennsylvania, was selected as one of 32 Rhodes Scholars from the United States; and
WHEREAS, The Rhodes Scholarship is widely known as one of the most prestigious fellowships in the world, covering up to three years of tuition and living expenses at the University of Oxford. Rhodes Scholars must meet rigorous standards of academic excellence, and demonstrate “personal energy, ambition for impact, an ability to work with others to achieve goals, leadership promise, a commitment to making a difference for good, a concern for the welfare of others, and a consciousness of inequities”; and
WHEREAS, Moore is a lifelong Philadelphian. She was raised in Southwest Philadelphia, and graduated from Penrose School and Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School before attending Penn, where she currently majors in Urban Studies and Sociology and minors in Africana Studies. She is a first generation college student; and
WHEREAS, Moore’s academic research focuses on family and community engagement at public schools in gentrifying areas of Philadelphia. Her work explores the impact of university and community partnerships on student achievement, and also investigates the complexities of parental engagement in schools based in neighborhoods experiencing rapid demographic change; and
WHEREAS, Moore’s work in Philadelphia’s underserved communities speaks volumes to her devotion to justice. Notably, she has served as the Assistant Family and Community Engagement Coordinator at Henry C. Lea School, running programs that have successfully bolstered parent engagement and the school’s music education program. She is also a staunch advocate of public school investment, and has worked at the Public Interest Law Center on special education policy and at Research for Action on public school teaching force diversity. As an intern for City Councilmember Helen Gym (At Large), Moore assisted with a policy campaign to ensure that low-income tenants facing eviction have access to legal assistance; and
WHEREAS, At Penn, Moore has spent much of her extracurricular time advocating for supports and services for first generation college students from low-income backgrounds. She helped to create Penn’s First-Generation, Low-Income (FGLI) Student Program, and served as the 2018 National Co-chair of 1vyG, the largest FGLI student conference in the world; and
WHEREAS, Moore’s successes in the face of adversity speak to her resilience. Her father, Darryl Moore, died of lung disease when Moore was a student at Masterman, and her mother, Tracie Moody, suffered a fatal heart attack during Moore’s freshman year of college. When speaking of her late parents and her successful bid for the Rhodes Scholarship, Moore remarked, “It’s their award, too”; and
WHEREAS, The Rhodes Scholarship is just another of Moore’s accolades. She is a 2018 Truman Scholar, a 2018 Questbridge Global Leadership Fellow, a 2017 National Newman Civic Fellow, a City of Philadelphia Mayor’s Scholar, and recipient of the 2017 Penn Undergraduate Women of Color Award; and
WHEREAS, As part of her graduate-level coursework at Oxford, Moore plans to further her study of education policy, family welfare policy, and community economic development strategies; and
WHEREAS, This year, there were 880 applications for the US Rhodes Scholarship from 281 universities across the United States. Of the 2018 United States Rhodes Scholar recipients, around half are first generation college students or immigrations, and 21 are women—the most ever in a single American cohort; and
WHEREAS, The Rhodes Scholarship is named for Cecil Rhodes, a racist, avaricious diamond tycoon and colonizer who perpetrated mass genocide across southern Africa in the late 19th century. Rhodes’ will established the scholarship, aiming to send civic-minded young men to study at Oxford and be inspired to further advance colonial rule. As such, Moore is committed to using the Rhodes Scholarship as a platform to fight for social change and racial justice; and
WHEREAS, Moore is the fourth School District of Philadelphia graduate to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship over the past five years; and
WHEREAS, The Rhodes Trust aims to “bring together and develop exceptional people who are impatient with the way things are and have the courage to act.” Upon reflecting on her laundry list of awards and fellowships, Moore remarked, “It’s about gaining the knowledge and getting the credentials so I can come back and help my community”; and
WHEREAS, The Rhodes Trust calls on scholars to stand up for the world. Anea Moore has stood up for Philadelphia, and she plans to continue to do so for many years to come; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the Council of the City of Philadelphia, Recognizes and honors Southwest Philadelphia’s Anea Moore, a Philadelphia public schools graduate, for being named a 2019 Rhodes Scholar.
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