Rhodes to achievement

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Tags: scholarships, winter-2009

Success is in 2009 Queensland Rhodes Scholar Caitlin Goss’s genes.

2008 Queensland Rhodes Scholar Caitlin Goss

The UQ graduate is the winner of the prestigious scholarship to Oxford University in England.

Ms Goss stood out from the 21 other applicants because of her academic achievements and personal qualities, graduating from UQ with a Bachelor of Arts (first-class honours) and Bachelor of Laws, and earning a University Medal in 2006. She also graduated from Brisbane Girls Grammar School with an overall position (OP) 1 in 2001.

She is the daughter of former Queensland Premier Wayne Goss and UQ PhD candidate Roisin Goss, sister of 2007 Queensland Rhodes Scholar Ryan Goss and granddaughter of 1927 scholar Konrad Hirschfeld.

Ms Goss said she had humble expectations of herself.

“The other applicants were terrifyingly impressive,” she said.

“It was surreal when I first heard I had won. I got out and called my mother. She was a bit teary.”

In September she will travel to Oxford University to study a Bachelor of Civil Laws, allowing her to expand her knowledge of post-conflict law reform.

Ms Goss hoped her studies would allow her to help set up new legal systems in countries recovering from war.

Rhodes Scholarships, founded in 1902 under the will of Cecil John Rhodes, are tenable for an initial two years, with the possibility of a third.

Ms Goss is The University of Queensland’s eighth Queensland Rhodes Scholar in a row.

By Tegan Taylor

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