Aniaba Jean-Baptiste N’guessan’s pursuit of education has taken him around the world.
In 2018, the Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, native enrolled in South Africa’s African Leadership Academy, one of the most prestigious schools on the continent. Then, after a fateful conversation with his university guidance counselor, he decided to travel 8,000 miles to Atlanta to attend Morehouse College in 2021 on an Oprah Winfrey scholarship.
A triple major in economics, mathematics, and computer science, N’guessan has juggled a rigorous course load of seven classes each semester. And now, upon graduation in May, the 23 year-old’s hard work, perseverance, and faith will take him to a new destination: England’s University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
In November, N’guessan was announced as a 2026 recipient of the Rhodes Scholarship, the world’s oldest and most prestigious international postgraduate award. The scholarship was established in 1902 to create global leaders and to promote international understanding and peace.
As the sixth Morehouse student to achieve this academic feat, the most from any HBCU, N’guessan has made the student body and faculty proud.
“He is such a great young man, and as exceptional as his academic achievements are, his humble leadership and willingness to serve resonate just as powerfully,” said F. DuBois Bowman, president of Morehouse College, in a press release. “His selection as a Rhodes Scholar is another profound testament to his academic ambitions, intellectual caliber, and tireless dedication. Aniaba is an exemplary representation of the mission and ethos of Morehouse College.”
Another distinction for N’guessan, who has a GPA of 3.72 and plans to pursue his graduate studies in economics at Oxford: He’s the first Ivorian and first Francophone selected by the Rhodes committee to represent West Africa.
“My faith was tested in moments when giving up seemed logical, yet I was reminded, as Nelson Mandela once said, that we must believe in the impossible, trust the invisible, and walk boldly into the unknown.”
Aniaba Jean-Baptiste N’guessan
“For me, it means that I feel seen and supported and trusted,” N’guessan told Capital B Atlanta when asked what it means to join the prestigious community. “I feel some sense of responsibility to represent the communities from which I come: my country, my high school, Morehouse, my family, and all the people that invested in me.”
And while the road to academic excellence wasn’t always easy, it was N’guessan’s faith that lit his path.
“This experience is a pure testament of God’s faithfulness in my life,” N’guessan said in a press release. “I learned that a story rooted in faith can travel across nations, touch hearts, and open doors no human effort could force open. My faith was tested in moments when giving up seemed logical, yet I was reminded, as Nelson Mandela once said, that we must believe in the impossible, trust the invisible, and walk boldly into the unknown. Above all, I’ve learned to trust my intuition, take risks led by conviction, and remember that our achievements are never for us alone but to serve God and serve humanity.”
How he got to Morehouse
Each year, the Oprah Winfrey Scholars Program takes a trip to empower youth in South Africa. It was the 12 students that visited N’guessan’s high school in 2019 that sparked a conversation about Black colleges in the states.
“My university guidance counselor, who was from the states and knew about the visit, told me, ‘We have this program at Morehouse College. Do your research,’” N’guessan said. “I started to learn about HBCUs. For me, I saw it as a continuation of the African Leadership Academy. ALA is all about developing the next generation of leaders on the continent, but also globally. Morehouse has such a legacy in just doing exactly that.”
Getting inspiration from others
N’guessan first enrolled at Morehouse as a biology major, and then as a business student.
“I declared the econ major first, but the influence to pursue a double major before the triple major was not mine,” N’guessan said. “It was the highest-ranking scholar in math at the time who said, ‘Why don’t you double major?’ I was like, ‘That’s crazy. How am I going to graduate on time?’”
After much consideration and conversations with advisers, he agreed. His success in economics and the familial nature of the mathematics department led him to begin thinking about post-graduate opportunities. A third declared major soon followed.
“I then added computer science,” N’guessan said. “The thinking behind that was to best prepare for an econ Ph.D. in the U.S. The emphasis is really quantitative. When you’re applying for econ programs, at least the top programs, you want to have a very solid background. Taking seven classes has been difficult each semester. I manage it as it goes.”
Making his mark off campus
N’guessan returned to the African Leadership Academy in 2022 as a teaching intern in its Global Scholars Program. He has been invited to speak at two Mastercard Foundation summits, one workshop on transformational leadership, and a bilingual session sharing his expertise as founder and CEO of VIRIDIS AI, a life management platform powered by artificial intelligence and cognitive science that has secured early-stage support from the Mastercard Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, and Blackstone.
“My goal is to work as hard as I can, with God’s grace, to get into rooms where I can share my gift to actually impact lives.”
Aniaba Jean-Baptiste N’guessan
After interning at the St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, and Intel, he became a research fellow at the joint Biomedical Engineering department between Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University.
Most recently, N’guessan has been serving as research assistant at Stanford University, exploring how Large Language Model AI platforms can simulate human responses in economic choice.
N’guessan, who plans to become an economist-entrepreneur to strengthen education, economic mobility, and leadership development around the world, is most looking forward to building on the technical skills and moral fortitude gained at Morehouse. He hopes to continue to lead with his faith and brilliance to transform each space he enters, and also plans to write a memoir about the transformative power of education.
“My goal is to work as hard as I can, with God’s grace, to get into rooms where I can share my gift to actually impact lives,” N’guessan said. “I’m interested in sharing my passions with the world. It’s not about a particular master’s program that I’m going to enroll in at Oxford. It’s about how I’m going to use the attention, the support that I receive and the communities that I’m blessed to be a part of to actually help people in a practical way.”
