KU Phi Kappa Phi Fellowship awarded to 2025 graduate Rita Pham

LAWRENCE — Rita Pham, a 2025 University of Kansas graduate with degrees in political science and East Asian languages & cultures, is the 2025 winner of the James Blackiston Memorial Graduate Fellowship from the KU chapter of Phi Kappa Phi. Pham wins $1,500 and is the chapter’s nominee for a national Phi Kappa Phi fellowship.
Pham, from Lee's Summit, Missouri, was named a U.S. Department of Education Foreign Language and Area Studies Chinese Fellow and a U.S. Department of State Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholar. In the KU community, she was an Ex.C.E.L. award finalist for campus leadership and involvement. She received the Department of East Asian Studies’ Mary and Joseph Kuo Chinese Studies Scholarship and the Department of Political Science’s Allan J. Cigler Academic Enrichment Award.
“Rita has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to academic excellence while pursuing a double major. She balanced an intensive course load alongside extracurriculars that required leadership, diligence, deep work ethic and intellectual curiosity,” said Najarian Peters, associate professor of law at the KU School of Law. “It’s been a delight to witness her resilience and generosity of spirit in community with other students, faculty and staff as she honed both her intellectual and leadership abilities at KU.”
Beyond her academic achievements, Pham served as social chair and debater on the Policy Debate Team, is a research assistant in the Center for Cyber-Social Dynamics, where she will focus on AI/ML governance and privacy law, was a student research scholar in the KU IRISE Character Development Initiative, served as a policy intern in the KU Office of Audit, Risk & Compliance and as a financial planner for KU Student Money Management Services. In the community, Pham has served as a volunteer with the Lawrence Community Shelter.
After her earning her degrees from KU, Pham plans to pursue a law degree.
About the Blackiston Fellowship
The Blackiston Fellowship was created to honor the memory of James Blackiston, a graduate student in the Department of Linguistics and an instructor in the Intensive English Center, now the Applied English Center, at KU. He graduated from Michigan State University, where he was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi. In 1975, Blackiston played a key role in the formation and activation of the KU chapter of Phi Kappa Phi.
The Blackiston Fellowship recipient becomes the KU chapter’s nominee for one of nearly 60 fellowships from Phi Kappa Phi with values from $5,000 to $15,000. These national fellowships provide assistance to students during their first year of postgraduate study.
The honor society of Phi Kappa Phi is the nation’s oldest and most selective honor society for all academic disciplines. More than 100,000 members maintain their active status in Phi Kappa Phi, which offers them numerous benefits as dues-paying members including access to $1.4 million in awards and grants each biennium.