Shakinar Mutulili

Attending the University of Oxford pursing two master’s degrees as a Rhodes Scholar, having graduated in 2025 from Pomona College, USA, with a degree in Public Policy Analysis and Law. Shakinar, from Kenya, was awarded a Beacon Scholarship in June 2018, and was a Beacon Scholar at secondary school for 4 years.

Shakinar is the 13th Rhodes Scholar in the 137-year history of Pomona College, with the last scholar being awarded 22 years ago. She is only the second woman at Pomona College to win the award and the first woman of colour. 

She graduated from Pomona College as the commencement speaker of the graduating class. She pursued a BA in Public Policy Analysis and served as the Senior Class President, overseeing a budget of more than $30,000 USD. During her tenure as the senior class president, she led numerous subcommittees that focused on creating experiences that improved student life and fostered community on campus. She also sat on the student senate and acted as a voting member on various committees of the College Board of Trustees. Her interest in politics and policy led her to intern with the Montana Democratic Party during the 2024 election cycle, supporting grassroots organising efforts with the aim of increasing civic engagement in rural regions.

Her interest in leadership and policy has led her to cities such as Brussels, Rome, and Paris, where she has studied the European Union’s policy frameworks and governance structures with think tanks, EU policy advisers, and officials. These interests also led her to Alaska as part of the Smithsonian Leadership for Change programme, where she worked together with the Anchorage Museum to support local refugee communities and document the stories of immigrants in the community to create more diverse and inclusive archival resources. Shakinar’s commitment to social justice is interconnected with her academic interests in policy. This led her to target issues such as the care of expectant mothers and children in Kenyan prisons, for which she was awarded the 2025 Paul Minus Grant as a Napier Initiative Fellow to continue her work within prisons under her organisation, Freedom Within Kenya, which she founded in 2018 with her sister. At Pomona College, Shakinar was awarded the Sheri Sangji Memorial International Senior Service Award 2025: the award is given to an international student and member of the graduating class who has contributed significantly to the life of Pomona College