A Georgetown University student and criminal justice reform advocate won the 2025 Rhodes Scholarship, one of the most prestigious scholarships for students around the world, the university announced in a press release Nov. 17.
Noa Offman (CAS ’25), a justice and peace studies major from Toronto, Canada, is one of 32 students from the United States to receive the scholarship, joining dozens of Georgetown students and graduates who have also won the award since its 1902 inception, including three Hoyas last year. The scholarship provides recipients with two years’ funding for graduate education at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, including tuition, fees and a stipend for living expenses.
Offman said she was thrilled to receive the scholarship and attributed her journey within the field of criminal justice to her time at Georgetown.
“I was overjoyed,” Offman told The Hoya. “I would not be studying what I study and doing what I do if it had not been for Georgetown.”
Offman arrived at Georgetown planning to study global health but switched her major during her first year after speaking with Colie “Shaka” Long, a program associate at Georgetown’s Prisons and Justice Initiative (PJI) — a university program that provides incarcerated individuals with reentry and educational opportunities — who was formerly incarcerated.
“There was this serendipitous moment in my ‘Problem of God’ class wherein I had a chance meeting with an incarcerated individual who was Zooming into my class from the D.C. Jail, and it’s quite rare for a college student who occupies incredibly privileged spaces to interact with any incarcerated or system-impacted person,” Offman said. “After that one class, I changed my major from global health to justice and peace studies, and I’ve never looked back.”
After meeting Long, Offman completed the final project for her “Media and Social Justice” class on juveniles sentenced to life in prison without parole.
“Being able to report on and amplify the stories that so often go untold, what a unique and special opportunity,” Offman said.
Offman said Georgetown and the PJI have played a unique role in forming her academic and career interests.
“To be a part of an educational institution in which formerly incarcerated people are teaching hundreds of Georgetown students is remarkable; it’s what I look forward to most,” Offman said.
At Oxford, Offman plans to pursue a master’s degree in criminology and sociolegal studies.
University Provost Robert M. Groves said he commended Offman’s achievements and service in winning the scholarship.
“We are so proud of Noa Offman’s accomplishments, both academically and in service to others,” Groves wrote in a Nov. 17 press release. “Noa has been an instrumental leader on and off campus, one who demonstrates resolve, integrity and an unwavering commitment to fight for justice. We know she will continue to make an impact for good in our world.”
Ann Oldenburg (GRD ’20), lecturer and assistant director of the journalism program, taught Offman in her “Media and Social Justice” class in Fall 2022.
Oldenburg said Offman’s character and capacity for empathy were evident in her enduring commitment to criminal justice reform.
“I remember that Noa was committed to this topic in my course as a matter of social justice, but it wasn’t until later — when she was applying for the Rhodes Scholarship — that I came to realize that she is deeply committed,” Oldenburg wrote to The Hoya. “When I asked her about her work with incarcerated individuals, she said it has created in her ‘a purpose I’ve never known,’ but the work has been a ‘radical test of empathy and understanding.’”
Offman said her experience working with and learning from formerly incarcerated people has made her uniquely positioned to advocate for changes to the U.S. prison system, which experts often consider inhumane.
“Knowing the stories and the injustices and blatant brutality that are rampant within our prison system is rare,” Offman said. “Being privy to that kind of information and getting to talk to the people that experience it directly imparts upon you a responsibility to do something about it.”
Beyond the classroom, Offman has also been involved in decarceration efforts with the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and wrongful conviction case preparation with a local law firm.
Erika Cohen Derr, associate vice president for student affairs, said Offman’s input was integral to developing Restorative Georgetown, a university task force the university created to advance restorative justice and community healing.
“Noa’s active participation and creative ideas in germinating restorative response options led her to be selected as the inaugural restorative justice student coordinator in the Office of Student Conduct,” Cohen Derr wrote in the press release. “She helped grow the Restorative Georgetown collective from a small group of mostly administrators to more than 50 people — students, faculty and staff — through proactive outreach and collaborative invitations.”
Lauren Tuckley (GRD ’11), the director of the Center for Research and Fellowships who advised Offman throughout the application process, said she is impressed by Offman’s sense of optimism as an advocate for criminal justice reform.
“I am most struck by her optimism — prison reform might be one of the most challenging fields to work in but she brings an unrelenting sense of hope in what might be considered a hopeless field,” Tuckley wrote to The Hoya. “She’s driven by a desire to make the world a more just, equitable place.”
Offman said she attributes her success to caring about what she does.
“You can be successful on caring alone — that’s what happened for me,” Offman said. “Every single day I get to work on something that I care deeply about alongside exceptional people society often overlooks, and as a 21-year-old, that is truly special.”