John Richardson, 23, a University of Alabama graduate with a bachelor’s degree in history and political science, was elected in his senior year to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. As an editor of the school’s Capstone Journal of Law and Public Policy, Richardson assigned and edited articles for publication. Throughout college, he volunteered as varsity soccer coach at a high school in ‘a struggling school system in Tuscaloosa County, using sports to teach life lessons about character, leadership and hard work. In 2022, he founded a chapter of Farmhouse International, a fraternity that holds its members to high academic and moral standards. On scholarship at Oxford he will study how public policy is made, hoping to spend time in the office of a British Member of Parliament to compare the experience with his time as a former U.S. Congressional intern.