OXFORD — Shadrack "Shad" Tucker White has been doing a lot of practice interviews lately, but they're not for a job. He already has one of those.

When this University of Mississippi honors graduate sits for the real interview Saturday in Kansas City, it is for an academic distinction shared by some of the world's great leaders and intellectuals of the past century.

White is a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship, an all-expense-paid opportunity to study for two years at Oxford University in England, one of the world's oldest universities. The scholarship is the most coveted academic award for American undergraduates.

White has the academic muscle, concern for others and character that the scholarship program was designed to attract. Since graduating summa cum laude from UM in May, he has been in Washington, D.C., working to improve early childhood education in both Mississippi and the rest of the nation.

White's senior honors thesis - an examination of finance and education in Mississippi schools that called for more accountability on funding issues - landed him a job as an analyst with the U.S. Department of Education, which then led to a fellowship with Pre-K Now, a nonprofit research and advocacy group.

"My days are filled with analyzing new research that comes out or helping policy analysts," he said. "I split my time between good research and good advocacy."

A Sandersville native, White graduated as a fellow of UM's Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College with a bachelor's degree in economics and political science. Before doing so, he spent a life-changing summer working at an impoverished orphanage in San Salvador, El Salvador.

He also organized students to help with voter-registration drives in the Mississippi Delta, provided edgy political commentary in the campus newspaper and helped with various political campaigns, including that of State Auditor Stacy Pickering.

While in the student senate, he persuaded the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning to establish a task force to make textbooks more affordable for students. He also chaired the campus College Republicans and was executive director of the Mississippi Federation of College Republicans.

At Ole Miss, White was named a Taylor Medalist, inducted into Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa, and named a Truman Scholar. The latter, who receive up to $30,000 for graduate school, are recognized as future "change agents" with the potential to improve how public entities serve the public good.

"The Truman opened a lot of doors," White said. "Regardless, being named a Rhodes finalist is one of those things you have to work for. The interview itself is fairly similar (to the Truman); they are both intended to throw you off your game."

If selected for the Rhodes Scholarship, White plans to finish his work in D.C., then join the postgraduate Enfield program in comparative social policy at Oxford University, where he would study social programs in the United Kingdom.

Reflecting on his time at Ole Miss, White says one important lesson he learned was how to deal with disappointment.

"I think for every success I had, there were probably three failures," he said.

For example, White ran for president of the Associated Student Body. He lost the election, but his campaign platform - racial reconciliation on campus - helped him land an internship at UM's William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, where he collected data for the organization's civil rights work. Some of this research helped with his senior thesis.

"He was a delight to work with," said Susan Glisson, the institute's executive director. "He's intelligent, diligent and resourceful."

In his endorsement of White for the Rhodes, honors college Dean Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez described him as having "perhaps the sharpest intellect in his class and, without a doubt, the most effective leader we had seen in years."

Those who have worked with him tend to echo that message, including UM Chancellor Robert Khayat, who also wrote a letter recommending White.

Though he was born and raised in Mississippi, White chose a road to Ole Miss that was not as straight as many students take. In 2004, he was offered a spot in the freshman class of his dream school, Georgetown University. The papers were signed and mailed. However, recognizing White's potential as a leader, a recruiter from the UM honors college convinced him that the university's honors program was the perfect place for him and offered him a full ride. This scholarship provided enough money for him to send some back home to his family.

"We are just really proud of him," said his father, Charles White. "He would not be here, I believe, without Ole Miss. We owe a great gratitude, and (the university) has really opened and challenged his mind."