Simone Marie Askew is a

first lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a ...

in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

. In 2017, she became the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

woman to earn the role of First Captain, leader of the Corps of Cadets. This is regarded as a major step in

racial A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...

and

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...

within the United States military. She graduated from West Point in 2018 with a BS in

international studies International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...

and

environmental engineering Environmental engineering is a professional engineering discipline that encompasses broad scientific topics like chemistry, biology, ecology, geology, hydraulics, hydrology, microbiology, and mathematics to create solutions that will protect and ...

. She was also named by

Glamour magazine ''Glamour'' is today an online women's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. For many years a traditional hard-copy magazine, it was founded in 1939 and first published in April 1939 in the United States. It was originally called '' ...

as one of the top 10 College Women of the Year. Askew is a 2014 graduate of Fairfax High School in Virginia. She was granted a Rhodes Scholarship in 2017. Askew earned a MSc with merit in refugee and forced migration studies from the

Refugee Studies Centre The Refugee Studies Centre (RSC) was established in 1982, as part of the University of Oxford's Department of International Development (Queen Elizabeth House), in order to promote the understanding of the causes and consequences of forced migrati ...

in 2019, and is currently pursuing

MPP MPP or M.P.P. may refer to: * Marginal physical product * Master of Public Policy, an academic degree * Member of Provincial Parliament (Ontario), Canada * Member of Provincial Parliament (Western Cape), South Africa * ''Merriweather Post Pavilio ...

from the

Blavatnik School of Government The Blavatnik School of Government is a school of public policy founded in 2010 at the University of Oxford in England. The School was founded following a £75 million donation from a business magnate Leonard Blavatnik, supported by £26 million ...

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Askew, Simone Year of birth missing (living people) Living people United States Military Academy alumni Military personnel from Virginia African-American female military personnel Female United States Army officers African-American United States Army personnel American Rhodes Scholars 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women