Hila Levy

Hila Levy
Captain Hila Levy^{[note 1]} First Puerto Rican awarded a Rhodes scholarship
Born	December 10, 1986 (1986-12-10) (age 28) Guaynabo, Puerto Rico
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Air Force
Years of service	2008 - present
Rank	Captain
Unit	35th Operations Group

Captain Hila Levy (born December 10, 1986) is an officer in the United States Air Force who was the first Puerto Rican to be awarded a Rhodes scholarship.^[1]

Early years

Levy was born and raised in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico where she received both her primary and secondary education. In 2004, Levy graduated from Saint John’s School in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Levy, who joined the Puerto Rico Wing of the Civil Air Patrol in 2000, reached the rank of Cadet Colonel and was the CAP's National Cadet of the Year in 2004. According to her citation, she earned the award for her outstanding academic performance, strong leadership skills, well-rounded extracurricular activities, and positive community involvement.^[2] Levy has stated that her experiences in the Civil Air Patrol served as an influential factor on her decision to apply for an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy.

USAFA

Levy received an appointment to attend the United States Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs in Colorado. As a Cadet 1st Class and member of Squadron 9, she was among 28 cadets named Dean's Aces and who were honored for their academic achievements in the Fall semester of 2005 at the academy. Levy, who earned a 4.0 grade point average that semester, was one of five cadets that year to be named an Ace three times.^[3] On May 28, 2008, Levy earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with 3 foreign language minors: Arabic, French and Spanish. She finished as the top graduate, earning the Outstanding Cadet in the Order of Graduation Award and a spot on the academy's 100-year Honor Roll.^[4] She received her Second Lieutenant's commission in the United States Air Force and awards from the Argentine Air Force and the Chilean Air Force for graduating first in her class during the US Air Force Academy Graduation and Commissioning Ceremony.^[4]

Rhodes scholar

In 2007, Levy became the first Puerto Rican and the 35th Academy cadet to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship. She was awarded the scholarship for the District 13 of Colorado. The Rhodes Scholarships were created in 1902 under the terms and conditions of the will of Cecil Rhodes, a British born African colonial pioneer.^[1]

Levy was planning on using the scholarship to obtain two masters degrees of one year each, the first a Master’s of Science in Global Health Science and the second a Master’s of Science in Medical Anthropology at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, however she was accepted to the Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.) in Public Health program (a 3-year degree which grants Oxford's Ph.D. equivalent) starting September 2008, under Oxford's Department of Public Health with Prof. Harold Jaffe as her supervisor.^[1]

Early in her first year at Oxford, she transferred to the History Faculty, where she obtained a Master of Studies in Historical Research in 2009 under military historian Dr. Robert Johnson, focusing on the formation of national armies in former French Equatorial Africa. Levy then obtained a Master of Science in Biology at Oxford, focusing on the population genetics of humans in southern Africa (under Dr. Cristian Capelli) and of penguins in the South Atlantic (under Dr. Tom Hart of the Institute of Zoology in London). Levy started her follow-on assignment in September 2010.^[5]

Levy joined two other Rhodes Scholarship winners from the United States Military Academy and the United States Naval Academy making it the second consecutive year that the military academies claimed three of only 32 recipients in the United States.^[1]

Levy is fluent in Italian, Portuguese, Hebrew, French and Spanish and has published numerous articles related to language in the military and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Levy was promoted to First Lieutenant in May 2010.

Recognition

Levy was honored with a plaque that has her name, squadron name and graduation date, which has been placed in the ballroom balcony of the Academy's hall of honor. The plaque recognizes Levy as the top former CAP cadet in the Class of 2008.^[4]