Homeschooled Student Named Rhodes Scholar

Aurora student named Rhodes Scholar
By Kirk Mitchell The Denver Post

Andrea DenHoed won a Rhodes Scholarship.

Andrea Denhoed’s dream of attending Oxford University began when she was 12 and she learned one of her favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, had gone there.

Her mother, Nancy, who homeschooled her and three siblings in their Aurora home, didn’t want to damper her enthusiasm but was realistic.

“I told her if she wanted to go to Oxford, the only way she could is if she was a Rhodes Scholar. The tuition was just too expensive.”

The Oklahoma University senior learned Saturday she was one of 32 college students from across the United States selected as 2008 Rhodes Scholars. She was the only Colorado resident on the list. A student attending the U.S. Air Force Academy, Hila Levy of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, was also selected.

“It’s amazing,” Andrea Denhoed said Sunday in a phone call from Oklahoma. “It’s something I’ve wanted for a decade.”

Her mother, from India, met her father, Jeffrey Denhoed, when she was a student English teacher at the University of Wyoming. Nancy Denhoed’s biggest achievement may be teaching her own kids. An older sister went to the U.S. Air Force Academy. An other brother is a mechanical engineer. Her youngest brother is in high school.

“She is extraordinary,” Andrea said. “She taught us to be extremely hard workers. She taught us to be intellectually curious. She made us read a lot.”

Andrea, who is a letters and international studies student at OU, will study literature and the English language at Oxford.

Andrea, a National Merit Scholar, loves writing poetry and rowing for the OU Crew team. She has a biweekly humor column in The Oklahoma Daily, the college newspaper. Andrea taught English to elementary students in Bangalore, India.

“She was pretty excited,” her father said about the scholarship. “She had a vision. But you never expect it to be you.”

Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com