Princeton senior Osamede Ogbomo and Class of 2024 alumnus Matthew Wilson have been awarded the John and Daria Barry Scholarship for study at the University of Oxford.

The scholarship was established in 2019 and "is awarded to the leading students of the United States of America in recognition of their dedication to the pursuit of truth," according to the Barry Scholars announcement. It provides full funding for a minimum two years of study, including tuition, a living stipend, and yearly stipends for research and travel.

Osamede Ogbomo, a politics major, will pursue an MPhil in politics (political theory) at Oxford. 

Her senior thesis, she said, “places the biblical story of King David within the broader tradition of political thought (evoking thinkers from Plato and Aristotle to Machiavelli and James Madison)” to examine ambition, authority and morality in contemporary political life.

A member of the Princeton Debate Panel and the American Whig-Cliosophic Society, Ogbomo said that one of her favorite pastimes is watching the Oxford Union debates online, and she is looking forward to seeing them in person next year.

In addition to her academic studies, Ogbomo is a James Madison Program undergraduate fellow and teaches piano at the Lewis Center for the Arts. She is also a member of New College West, where she is a residential community living adviser.

Since 2023, she has served as a campus manager for Act One, a Washington, D.C.-based startup focused on helping young adults navigate their careers.

After her studies at Oxford, she hopes to pursue a career as a political strategist.

Matthew Wilson majored in politics and earned certificates in medieval studies and Hellenic studies at Princeton. He will pursue an MPhil in politics (political theory) at Oxford.

He is currently deputy editor and interim managing editor of Public Discourse, the online publication of the Witherspoon Institute. He is also a research assistant to Robert P. George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, professor of politics and director of the James Madison Program.

At Princeton, Wilson was awarded the Stephen Whelan ’68 Senior Thesis Prize for Excellence in Constitutional Law and Political Thought for his thesis, which examined the relationship between religiously associated political arguments and contemporary democratic pluralism.

At Oxford, he said, he is “excited to study at one of the world's most renowned centers of analytic political philosophy” and to supplement his studies with participation in the Canterbury Institute, which awards the Barry Scholarship.

Outside the classroom, he was treasurer of the Aquinas Institute, a columnist with The Daily Princetonian, Cliosophic party chair in the American Whig-Cliosophic Society, a James Madison Program undergraduate fellow, a member of Princeton’s Rose Castle Society and the University’s student chapter of the Federalist Society. He also was a member of New College West, where he served as a peer academic adviser.

After his studies at Oxford, Wilson hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in political philosophy.