In 2024, University of Houston students made history by earning a record number of Fulbrights; Truman and Marshall Scholarships; and the Phi Beta Kappa Key into Public Service. These were just a few of the exclusive honors awarded to Coogs.
Fast forward to February 2025, and UH is poised for another outstanding year of accolades. This month, English major Kalena Holeman was named as a Gates Cambridge Scholar. She is just the second student at the University to receive this scholarship, which will support her graduate studies at the University of Cambridge in England.
Holeman already had achieved a major accomplishment by gaining acceptance into the institution’s esteemed graduate school. This scholarship, she said, perfectly complements her admission into one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious academies.
“I’ve never received such a competitive, national — or rather international — award before, so I am truly honored and humbled to have been chosen,” Holeman said. “I knew that I had been admitted to Cambridge, but not necessarily how I would fund it. When I found out, it felt like an enormous weight was lifted from my shoulders.”
Holeman is among approximately 80 scholars worldwide selected for this postgraduate scholarship. On average only 1.3% of applicants are selected as Gates Cambridge scholars.
She is a member of the University’s Honors College and has earned academic recognition as a Mellon Research Scholar, a FrameWorks Fellow, and a Provost’s Undergraduate Research Scholar. At the University, she has contributed her talents to the Houston Law Review and undergraduate literary journal Glass Mountain as an editor. She also has served as a research assistant and has been featured on UH’s Scholars Walk. Other accomplishments include a digital research assistance for UH’s Digital Humanities and internships with Rice University’s Woodson Research Center and the Houston African American History Research Center. She also was selected to participate in a summer research program with Harvard University’s classics department. This spring, she is expected to complete her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from UH’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.
“These experiences undeniably set me on the path that I am now on today,” Holeman said. “Through them, I discovered a love of research and also that I could carve a space for myself and my history within scholarly conversation.”
As an undergraduate researcher, Holeman has focused on receptions of antiquity and the premodern in 20th-century Black diasporic literature. During 2024 Undergraduate Research Day, she presented on the influence Dante’s “Divine Comedy” on Gayl Jones’s novel “Corregidora.” Through the support of PURS, Holeman studied the role of women in artist Romare Bearden’s “Odyssey Suite.”
At the University of Cambridge, she’ll continue her academic explorations on similar topics.
“I am pursuing a Master of Philosophy in classics to study at the intersection of Black feminist theory and classical reception to better understand antiquity’s influence on modern conceptions of race, literature, and culture,” she said.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, which was established in 2000 with the support of a $210 million donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It supports students from outside the United Kingdom as they pursue graduate degrees at the University of Cambridge. Gates Cambridge Scholars are selected outstanding intellectual ability; reasons for their choice of course; a commitment to improving the lives of others; and leadership potential.
“At UH, Kalena Holeman has certainly proven herself as a student and researcher,” said Diane Z. Chase, UH senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “She will now have opportunities to continue her academic journey at one of the most noted academies in higher education. Earning this scholarship is a tremendous achievement and reflects the discipline, determination and drive she’s demonstrated on our campus.”
While Holeman credits the support of her faculty mentors and peers in earning this scholarship, she also is appreciative of the Office of Undergraduate Research and Major Awards (OURMA). The office, led by its executive director Ben Rayder, assists students in preparing for competitive scholarships. It provides guidance on application processes, interview preparation and other factors that help students successfully earn scholarships.
“OURMA was immensely helpful throughout the application process,” Holeman said. “After finding out that I had been selected as a finalist, Dr. Rayder also helped me prepare for my interview. OURMA even supported my travel to Seattle so that I could attend the interview in person. I really could not have done any of this without them.”
“I am really proud of Kalena,” Rayder said. “She applied for multiple fellowships that were all a good fit for her interests and worked extensively on challenging applications throughout the fall semester. She never quit and continued to refine both her writing and thinking. In Kalena, Cambridge is getting a passionate student, exceptional person, and dynamic representative of the United States. It's a win-win for everyone.”
Holeman is just one of the many student success stories to emerge from UH and to benefit from OURMA. The Gates Cambridge Scholarship is among the first student awards announced in 2025 and more Coogs will surely follow in Holeman’s footsteps.
Beyond the honor of earning this prestigious scholarship, Holeman is looking forward to the personal and intellectual growth that comes with it. More importantly, she is ready to apply the skills gained at both UH and the University of Cambridge to enriching the world around her.
“This scholarship will not only allow me to receive a world-class education from Cambridge, but it will also allow me to be surrounded by a diverse, global cohort of peers who are each uniquely dedicated to building a better future,” she said. “In my career as an academic, I hope to work with communities within and beyond the university to elevate marginalized voices in classics, literature, and history.”