J.T. Flowers

Portlander JaVaughn T. "JT" Flowers is among 32 Americans awarded a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in England.

A graduate of Yale University, Flowers attended Lincoln High School in Portland and played basketball at both schools. At Yale he founded an organization called A Leg Even to offer mentors, tutors, faculty connections and other academic and social support to low-income Yale students.

Flowers, who turned 24 on Sunday, completed a long, competitive application process for the Rhodes Scholarship, which is among the most coveted awards in academics. A seven-judge panel chose him from a group of finalists at an event Saturday evening in Seattle.

"I really don't know how to attach words to it," Flowers said Sunday. "I'm really at a loss. I'm so humbled."

Last year, Flowers won a Truman Scholarship to support graduate school studies for outstanding students preparing for careers in government or public service. While at Yale he studied in six different countries, examining the impacts of culture, class and institutions on policy and social change. His Yale thesis looked at gaps in Portland's sanctuary city policy for undocumented immigrants.

After graduating, Flowers came back to Portland last summer and joined Rep. Earl Blumenauer's local field office, where his job is to connect the congressman's office with people across his constituency.

"I'm essentially getting paid to learn about all the incredible work going on across all these different silos in Portland," Flowers said.

On Sunday, Blumenauer lauded Flowers' award.

"He's just an outstanding candidate for the Rhodes," the congressman told the Associated Press. "He's a very quick study, very good with people, an incisive listener who is able to translate that back to people who contact him and to the staff in our office. We're excited for him, and we're excited for what he's going to do when he's back."

Though he grew up in Northeast Portland, Flowers attended Lincoln in the city's Southwest quadrant to participate in a language immersion program. Flowers said he was a poor student academically at Lincoln, then attended a fifth year of high school at a boarding school in Connecticut before starting Yale.

Rhodes Scholarships pay tuition and expenses for two or three years of study at Oxford. Flowers' class begins study in October 2018; he said he plans to earn degrees in comparative social policy and public policy and then return to Portland.

"Portland is home for me and will always be home for me. I was born and raised here in the heart of Northeast Portland," Flowers said. "I want to set up permanent shop here. I'll be gone for a couple years, but then I'll be right back here."

On Facebook, Flowers thanked his mother and his community for enabling his success and his scholarship.

"I stand on the shoulders of so many. Know that I will never forget that. Know that I know where I come from, and that all of my strength comes from y'all," he wrote. "I don't know what this means for me, or what it means for NE Portland. But I am positive that this triumph is the triumph of an entire city, and a testament to all that my community has poured into me."

This article has been updated with comment from Flowers and Blumenauer.

-- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; 503-294-7699