The Barton Rhodes Scholarship
for the Gifted with Cerebral Palsy

Brilliant minds, funded. Generously. By a man who computes everything by hand on principle.

After exhaustive diligence across the entire space of things worth funding, our thesis converged on a single, obvious conclusion: back brilliant people who happen to have cerebral palsy, and then get out of their way. That's the whole strategy. We just put it on a website.

"Talent is a functor; it maps effort to outcome. My only job is to make sure the diagram commutes — which, in practice, means writing a check and bringing souvla." — Barton Rhodes, founder, probably mid-snack

Who It's For

Students with cerebral palsy who are, frankly, smarter than the rest of us: the mathematicians, the builders, the writers, the ones already three steps ahead. We are not here to be impressed by your perseverance (though we are). We are here because your work is genuinely good and deserves resources.

What You Get

• Actual scholarship funding for tuition, tools, or whatever unblocks the work
• Zero patronizing. We fund the talent, not the backstory.
• A mentor (Barton) who will explain why your idea is isomorphic to a much older idea, kindly
• Lifetime access to a man who has strong, unsolicited opinions about ducks
• Souvla, when logistically feasible

Our Selection Philosophy

We read everything. We meet you. We ignore credentials, prestige, and anyone who uses the word "synergy." If your work makes Barton put down his snack, you're in. It is a high bar. The snack is very good.

About Barton

Barton Rhodes is an applied category theorist, a relentless goofball, and the kind of person who will derail a serious meeting to point at a duck. He started this scholarship because the smartest people he knows kept getting overlooked by funders who couldn't see past a wheelchair to the brain operating it. He finds this categorically absurd. So he did something about it.