Footscray rowers’ Rhodes honours a club coup

A rare double honour has come to Footscray with two members of Footscray City Rowing Club awarded Rhodes Scholarships for this year.

Jenny Tran and Kristijan Jovanovski have been awarded two of only nine scholarships that are granted in Australia each year for undertaking post-graduate studies at Oxford University.

Ms Tran, a doctor at Werribee Mercy Hospital, was director of REACH (Realising Education and Access to Collaborative Health), which was Australia’s first student-run clinic project to deliver free community health care.

Mr Jovanovski, a neuroscience researcher, founded the Melbourne University Health Initiative (MUHI), a charity running a preventive medicine campaign in Kenya, outreach programs for asylum seekers and disadvantaged high school students, and supplying hospitals in developing countries with medical materials.

Previous Rhodes scholars include prime ministers Tony Abbott and Bob Hawke.