{"id":1218068,"date":"2022-01-15T13:51:01","date_gmt":"2022-01-15T18:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1218068"},"modified":"2022-01-15T13:51:11","modified_gmt":"2022-01-15T18:51:11","slug":"she-won-a-rhodes-scholarship-after-claiming-to-grow-up-poor-and-abused-her-story-was-a-hoax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/she-won-a-rhodes-scholarship-after-claiming-to-grow-up-poor-and-abused-her-story-was-a-hoax\/","title":{"rendered":"She Won A Rhodes Scholarship After Claiming To Grow Up Poor And Abused. Her Story Was A Hoax."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">36<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fshe-won-a-rhodes-scholarship-after-claiming-to-grow-up-poor-and-abused-her-story-was-a-hoax%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1218068&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>University of Pennsylvania graduate student Mackenzie Fierceton won the praise and approval of her school in November 2020 when she was one of 32 scholars to win the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMackenzie is so deserving of this prestigious opportunity,\u201d university president Amy Gutmann said of Fierceton. \u201cAs a first-generation [to go to college] low-income student and a former foster youth, Mackenzie is passionate about championing young people [and] dedicating herself to a life of public service.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Months later, however, Fierceton would lose her scholarship after she was accused of being \u201cblatantly dishonest\u201d about her childhood in both her Rhodes Scholarship and University of Pennsylvania applications, the New York Post <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/01\/11\/rhodes-scholar-denied-honor-after-dishonesty-about-life-story\/\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The full story of Fierceton\u2019s alleged deception was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chronicle.com\/article\/the-dredging\">reported<\/a> at The Chronicle of Higher Education, which noted that she was asked to meet with UPenn\u2019s deputy provost Beth Winkelstein over Zoom in the fall of 2020. Winkelstein reportedly asked numerous questions, including \u201cWho were her parents? Did her mother go to college? Was she given a car? Who was Darren? Would medical records show she had broken ribs? What about injuries to her face?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The questions were based on Fierceton\u2019s inspiring story of being the first person in her family to go to college, of growing up in a low-income household, and even spending time in the foster-care system. Her capstone thesis was about foster kids often ending up in prison, the Chronicle reported.<\/p>\n<p>At the time Fierceton won the scholarship, The Philadelphia Inquirer published an article about her, which led to an anonymous email questioning her story. From the Chronicle:<\/p>\n<p><em>In reality, the email said, Fierceton had grown up in an affluent suburb of St. Louis with her mother, a radiologist, and had attended private schools. A similar email, sent to the Rhodes Trust, accused her of being \u201cblatantly dishonest in the representation of her childhood\u201d and included photos from her high-school yearbook of Fierceton skydiving, riding a horse, and whitewater rafting. The anonymous email led to the meeting with the deputy provost and would prompt two investigations, one by Rhodes and one by the university, that would result in further accusations of deception. Much of that scrutiny focused on an essay in Fierceton\u2019s undergraduate application that details alleged abuse so severe that it landed her in a pediatric intensive-care unit.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It is no secret that stories of trauma help students win prestigious scholarships, which may lead some to at least stretch the truth about their lives in an attempt to gain favor.<\/p>\n<p>UPenn started heavily investigating Fierceton\u2019s story, including speaking to people from her hometown. Some professors, who bought Fierceton\u2019s story without any verification, claimed the university was mistreating a young woman with trauma.<\/p>\n<p>It turns out that Fierceton attended a $30,000-a-year private high school in the St. Louis suburbs in an affluent suburb with her mother, the director of breast imaging and mammography at a nearby hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Fierceton also claimed that on September 22, 2014, her mother pushed her down the stairs during an argument and struck her in the face multiple times. Fierceton claimed she drove herself to school, then collapsed in front of a teacher and was taken to a hospital. Fierceton described in her scholarship essay that an event left her in a hospital bed with a feeding tube in her mouth and \u201cfacial features so distorted and swollen that I cannot tell them apart,\u201d adding that her \u201cblonde hair is caked with dried blood.\u201d She claimed an \u201carmy of nurses\u201d had to help her to the bathroom and that she had \u201cbraces stabilizing most of my body.\u201d She didn\u2019t identify the event, but claimed her mother was the assailant.<\/p>\n<p>Fierceton\u2019s mother claimed that she had an excellent relationship with her daughter, but that the younger girl had anxiety. Her mother claimed that Fierceton asked her for help getting gum out of her hair while they were on the stairs and that she jerked her head back and stumbled down a few steps before sitting down.<\/p>\n<p>Fierceton did go to the hospital at that time, and her mother was arrested on charges of child abuse, but those charges were dropped after the assistant prosecuting attorney had serious doubts about the honesty of the allegations.<\/p>\n<p>At the meeting with UPenn\u2019s Winkelstein, Fierceton was asked about people she identified in her personal essay. Her essay began with a claim that she entered foster care and named several people she identifies as other foster kids.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, Chandra is institutionalized for the seventh time,\u201d she wrote. \u201cDarren and Will are incarcerated. Casey is terminally ill.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Winkelstein asked who these people were but Fierceton said she was not \u201ccomfortable\u201d answering.<\/p>\n<p>Winkelstein later informed the Rhodes committee about the allegations, including news that Fierceton was not the first person in her family to graduate from her college. Her grandfather was a college graduate.<\/p>\n<p>Rhodes conducted its own investigation and determined that Fierceton \u201ccreated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>University of Pennsylvania graduate student Mackenzie Fierceton won the praise and approval of her school in November 2020 when she was one of 32 scholars to win the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford. \u201cMackenzie is so deserving of this prestigious opportunity,\u201d university president Amy Gutmann said of Fierceton. \u201cAs a first-generation [to go &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1218068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1218068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1218068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1218068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1218068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}