The Rhodes Scholarship Trust has announced U.S. Military Academy Cadet Elizabeth A. Betterbed of Fox Island, Wash., as one of the 32 American recipients for this year’s prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

Scholarship recipients are selected on the criteria of scholastic talent, leadership ability, integrity of character, selflessness and physical prowess. Both Betterbed and Rosenberg will have the opportunity to continue their education at Oxford, England, for two years. Since 1923, West Point has earned this achievement 90 times ranking it fourth nationally.

Betterbed is in her final year at West Point where she majors in mechanical engineering. She is the Deputy Brigade Commander, the second highest ranked leadership position for the 4,400 Corps of Cadets and is second in her class academically, and first overall (academic, physical and military disciplines.)

Betterbed has earned awards in mechanical engineering by conducting research for the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review and studied in Mexico as an exchange student. She is a member of a team of cadets currently designing and building a powered prosthetic foot to allow wounded Soldiers to have the ability to run and as a varsity soccer player, she earned the designation of an academic All-American. Betterbed will complete a Master of Philosophy in geography and the environment at Oxford.

About West Point
Ranked the “Top College in the Country” by Forbes and “Top Public Liberal Arts College” by 
US News & World Report, the U.S. Military Academy is a four-year co-educational federal undergraduate liberal arts college located 50 miles north of New York City. The world’s preeminent leader development institution, it was founded in 1802 as America’s first college of engineering. Its mission remains constant—to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army. For more information, go to www.westpoint.edu.

Elizabeth Betterbed of Fox Island is majoring in mechanical engineering at Army in West Point, N.Y., and she has a 4.235 cumulative grade-point average.

She’s been ranked No. 1 in her class at United States Military Academy at West Point since her freshman year.

She holds the second-highest rank in the Corps of Cadets, which numbers 4,400, as a Deputy Brigade Commander.

She’s a team leader, first sergeant for the Brigade Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Executive Officer for the Summer Garrison Regiment.

She has the highest GPA in the Patriot League for women’s soccer for the past two years.