West Point Cadet Named Barry Scholar

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Canterbury Institute recently announced that Cadet Denton Knight, Class of 2021, an International Affairs major and Persian minor from Fairfax, Va., earned a Barry Scholarship.

Knight is one of nine Barry Scholars selected this year and the academy’s first recipient.

“National and international scholarship competitions continue to recognize the hard work and dedication of our cadets,” said U.S. Military Academy Dean of the Academic Board Brig. Gen. Cindy Jebb. “We are incredibly proud of Cadet Knight; he is an outstanding young scholar. His graduate work will enable him to make significant contributions as a future leader in the U.S. Army.”

Born and raised in Fairfax, Va., Knight has focused his studies and work experiences on developing an understanding of international community development rooted in a conception of the good life. He spent a year living and working with a non-governmental organization in small-town Tajikistan, where he built assistive devices for children with disabilities and taught English. He has also interned with the Security Governance Initiative at the U.S. Department of State’s Africa Bureau, taught schoolchildren in Tanzania, and commanded a Company of Cadets through summer field training during COVID-19. This year, he is engaged as the leader of the cadet Trust program, an organization focused on supporting efforts at fighting sexual assault and harassment through offering peer support at the lowest level. His research has explored the impact of technology on education quality and the effects of foreign aid on rates of social capital. He looks forward to serving as an Army Infantry Officer and later hopes to transition to the Civil Affairs branch and eventually work in the international development field.

The Barry Scholarship is a graduate scholarship for American citizens and permanent residents at the University of Oxford, generously funded by the John and Daria Barry Foundation. Candidates are nominated by professors of leading universities and academic institutions and receive comprehensive support for their studies at Oxford for two years. Support includes payment of all tuition fees and university costs, a research allowance, and a travel allowance.  In addition, the Canterbury Institute devotes resources to helping Barry Scholars run research events of their own design.

The Barry Scholarship is provided through the Canterbury Institute, which serves as the home of Barry Scholars while in Oxford and provides the resources, mentorship, administration, and program of activities to foster the Scholarship’s reputation as a world-leading academic initiative.  The Barry Scholarship is guided by an ethos of humility towards the truth and courage in bearing witness to that truth in the midst of an increasingly divided world.  For its selection process, the Barry Scholarship’s Academic Committee leverages an extremely wide and diverse network of academic institutions, which nominate outstanding students for consideration.  Following receipt of a letter of nomination, nominees are contacted and invited to submit evidence of their accomplishments to the Academic Committee, which evaluates applications yearly according to set criteria of academic potential.  The Academic Committee pays particular attention to evidence that the nominee pursues truth, demonstrates virtue, is sincere to his or her convictions, is open to change, and has the capacity to debate controversial points with sincerity and respect. Further information on the Barry Scholarship can be found on its website: www.barryscholarship.org.

About West Point

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is a four-year, co-educational, federal, liberal arts college located 50 miles north of New York City. It was founded in 1802 as America’s first college of engineering and continues today as the world’s premier leader-development institution, consistently ranked among top colleges in the country. Its mission remains constant—to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the nation as an officer in the U. S. Army. For more information, go to www.westpoint.edu.