We are thrilled to hear that recent graduate Will (William) Flintoft (OM 2021) will become a Rhodes Scholar, having been awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford for 2026.
He will become the 20th Old Melburnian Rhodes Scholar, joining a list of accomplished and high-achieving academics spanning over 100 years.
Will has been studying at Harvard University since 2022, working towards a Bachelor of Arts (Mathematics and Philosophy), and a Master of Science (Applied Mathematics) through the Harvard John A Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
He commenced at Melbourne Grammar School Grimwade House in Prep, and during his time at the School was an accomplished debater, orator, actor, musician, and academic.
Will was the 2021 Proxime Accessit and recipient of a 2021 Premier’s VCE Award (Top All-Round VCE High Achiever Award), scoring the highest-possible ATAR of 99.95. As a Year 11 student, he attained perfect study scores of 50 for two VCE Unit 3 & 4 subjects - Mathematical Methods and Physics.
His VCE experience was in many ways started and shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, making his achievements all the more impressive.
“He’s an amazing young man that not only shows incredible intellect, but also a great sense of respect and humility,” Headmaster Philip Grutzner says.
“We know how much he’ll appreciate the opportunities of a Rhodes Scholar, and we’re very excited to watch his career unfold and as he makes an amazing impact on wider society and the world.”
As 2021 Captain of the School, he wrote in Grammar News of the importance of a humanised curriculum, and of a “living” education.
“I see that idea of a “living” school in students’ success in subjects they love, on the athletics field, the stage, and the easel: not points on a resume, or micro credentials to be accumulated, but actualisations of a passion forming part of the human experience,” he reflected.
“Melbourne Grammar’s emphasis on living and not just attending school means that students are immersed in a system of experience that makes education more than a ticket. It is a means by which we can engage meaningfully with the world, becoming young people to whom school is not a gap of time between birth and employment, but a lived experience in and of itself.”
The Rhodes Scholarship is a prestigious, merit-based honour, with the purpose of developing public-spirited leaders and to promote understanding and peace through an international community of Scholars. It is awarded to approximately 105 talented young people, known as Rhodes Scholars, globally each year.
Congratulations, Will!
Melbourne Grammar School Rhodes Scholars
E F Herring (OM 1910)
W S K Hughes (OM 1914)
S C Leslie (OM 1915)
W K Hancock (OM 1916)
R R Sholl (OM 1919)
A Garran (OM 1924)
J C Richards (OM 1929)
M N Austin (OM 1931)
A H Cash (OM 1940)
J D Anderson (OM 1963)
G D Cumming (OM 1963)
C D Cordner (OM 1967)
C M Maxwell OM 1969)
A G Michelmore (OM 1970)
P M Crossley (OM 1981)
C D McCamish (OM 1987)
C R B Day (OM 1988)
P L Pham (OM 1991)
A A Wyatt (OM 1993)
W J R Flintoft (OM 2021)
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