When the Rhodes Scholarship selection committee congratulated a “Mohammed” as the first of two winners from Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Alharthi’s first reaction was, “Who is that Mohammed? I want to congratulate them.”

“I started seeing people congratulate me,” Alharthi said. “That was the moment where I started to realize, ‘Oh, this is a huge thing. I actually won.’”

The Rhodes Scholarship, considered by some as one of the most prestigious in the world, funds full-time postgraduate study at most University of Oxford courses for two or more years. Alharthi, a fourth-year mathematics/economics and political science student, is UCLA’s first international student to receive the scholarship and the university’s first recipient since 2010 Rhodes Scholar Elizaveta Fouksman.

For the 2025 class of scholars, the Rhodes Trust selected 104 students from 25 international constituencies. Alharthi said he plans to study public policy, diplomatic studies or international relations.

“Ultimately, I do think of myself as a public servant,” he said. “It may not mean going directly to a certain position or to a certain entity or working under a certain office, but rather being in a place where I can contribute … most to my society.”

Saudi Arabia is going through a transformation as demand for oil – its biggest export – is expected to decrease in the next couple decades, Alharthi said, adding that this will affect the way that the country will conduct policy and be seen globally.

Alharthi said he is excited to apply what he has learned at Oxford, UCLA and through his time spent as a summer business analyst at global consulting firm McKinsey & Company last summer to help the government, companies and people of Saudi Arabia adapt to this transformation.

Alharthi also completed internships with the United Nations and the Saudi Industrial Development Fund during his time at UCLA. He stood out at SIDF as well-spoken and ambitious among not only other interns but also full-time employees, said Khalil Al-Nammari, SIDF’s vice president of strategic planning and business development.

Alharthi reached out to Al-Nammari as a mentor while he was at SIDF, and they would take walks and discuss next steps for Alharthi’s career, Al-Nammari said.

“I told Mohammed, ‘To me, this is a two-way relationship where you might be asking me all of these questions to help you inside, make decisions, to guide you through your life,’” he said. “’You’re a source of energy, because … I see myself looking at you one day and telling others around me, “I was part of this person’s success, and look what he is today. I bet on him, and that was a bet that was worth it.”‘”

Alharthi said he created an informal committee of interns while at the United Nations to reach out to different ambassadors, giving him the opportunity to meet the Egyptian ambassador and the head of the Palestinian observer mission.

The committee met with ambassadors to discuss issues that were important to them as young diplomats, he said, adding that having the opportunity to hear and voice concerns to world leaders helped him better understand international diplomacy.

Alharthi applied to UCLA intending to study political science, but he said he decided to pick up a second major in mathematics/economics to challenge himself because he did not study math or science in high school.

“The Rhodes scholarship looks at everything,” said Davide Panagia, chair of political science and a past Rhodes Scholarship recipient. “It’s a holistic type of assessment, but part of that is a strong weight on academic excellence.”

Alharthi said one of his favorite memories at UCLA is celebrating Saudi National Day in front of Royce Hall with the Saudi Arabian Student Association.

He is also using artificial intelligence to aid in researching diplomacy and international affairs questions for his undergraduate honors thesis, said Rebecca Blustein, associate director of UCLA’s Center for Scholarships and Scholar Enrichment.

She also said she hopes that a UCLA student winning the Rhodes scholarship this year will inspire others to apply, adding that UCLA usually has two Rhodes finalists each year.

“It also is going to give me an opportunity to meet people who also think about the world in a similar way, who want to make a positive change for this world and to become servants of it,” Alharthi said. “I really wanted to put myself in that community and to get myself to be challenged to optimize what I have – and I think the Rhodes Scholarship is a translation of that.”