SEWANEE, Tenn. – Sewanee senior women's soccer player Kylene Monaghan was informed this past weekend of her selection as a 2026 Rhodes Scholar, the world's oldest and most celebrated international postgraduate award. She becomes the 28^th recipient of the award in Sewanee's storied history.
 
Established in 1902, the Rhodes Scholarship is awarded based on academic excellence, leadership, commitment to service, and ambition for social impact. A full list of this year's Rhodes Scholar honorees may be found here.
 
The Blacksburg, Va., native is set to graduate in Spring 2026 with a 4.00 grade-point-average with a double major in Physics and Mathematics. She was selected as one of 32 American Rhodes Scholars chosen from 238 finalists nationwide. Nearly 2,800 students began the application process this year, representing more than 260 colleges and universities. The Rhodes Scholarship provides full funding for 2-to-3 years of graduate study at the University of Oxford in England.
 
At Oxford, she plans to pursue an M.Sc. by research in engineering science as well as an M.Sc. in quantum technologies, extending the interdisciplinary work she has already undertaken in physics, mathematics, and engineering. Her research résumé spans quantum computing, thermal engineering, high-energy particle physics, and applied mathematics.
 
She received a Vice Chancellor Scholarship at Sewanee and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and elected student Vice President this fall. Monaghan earned the Isabelle Caldwell Marks Award, given to one junior woman exemplifying integrity, leadership, and scholarship; the Robert Hooke Award for excellence in calculus, the first-year prize for having the highest academic average in her class; and the James and Marjorie Williams Scholarship for exemplary students pursuing the pre-engineering program.
 
She won the prize for best poster presentation at the 2025 annual conference for the Tennessee Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers (TAAPT) for her research on developing a photolithographic system for creating graphene electrical contacts, and she was inducted into the physics honors society, Sigma Pi Sigma, in December 2024.
 
This past summer Monaghan served as a CERN Summer Student in Geneva, where she conducted simulations for dijet analyses in the LHCb program and was one of only two American students recognized with honorable mention in the Karbach Prize competition for summer researchers. She previously completed an NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) in thermal engineering at Washington University in St. Louis and reviewed mathematical modeling research for a physics publication.
 
On campus, she is president of the Sewanee Society of Physics Students, a peer tutor in physics and calculus, a member of Order of the Gown, and an active participant in Sewanee Cru and the Math Club.
 
Monaghan's athletic accomplishments rival those in the classroom and research labs, garnering First Team All-Southern Athletic Association honors as a freshman, junior and senior and Second Team honors as a sophomore. She was voted the SAA Newcomer of the Year as a freshman and First Team All-Region by the United Soccer Coaches Association as a junior.
 
She garnered College Sports Communicators Academic All-District accolades each of the last two years. Monaghan has posted 16 goals with 15 assists and eight game-winning goals while starting 71-of-75 matches in her four seasons for the Tigers, helping the program to three consecutive SAA regular season and tournament championships as well as two NCAA Tournament appearances.
 
In her spare time, she volunteers as a worship leader at Grace Fellowship Church, leading services and using her singing ability to serve the congregation. She also works with the Good News Club at Cowan Elementary School, visiting once-a-week through her local church to play games with and supervise kids as they learn about the Bible for two hours after school; Mountain TOP Service Day, constructing and installing a roof on a house that collapsed and laying down wood for a deck; Sleep in Heavenly Peace, assembling and sanding wood for 150 beds for local children without beds in the surrounding area; and at a Youth Sports Camp through her church, a week-long summer camp offering free sports programming to local families, planning and supervising activities across multiple sports to encourage teamwork and fun problem solving.