Rhodes Scholars Class Of 2016 Includes 2 From Massachusetts

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Four students from New England are among 32 Americans named as Rhodes scholars for the 2016 academic year.

The New England winners include Harvard seniors Grace Huckins of Weston, Massachusetts, and Garrett Lam of Wellesley, Massachusetts; University of Virginia senior Russell Bogue of Guilford, Connecticut and Hannah Schneider of Hamden, Connecticut, who graduated from Georgetown University this year.

The 32 award winners were selected from a field of 869 qualified applicants, who were narrowed down to 208 finalists, Rhodes Trust officials said. Rhodes scholarships provide all expenses for two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England.

Huckins is majoring in neurobiology and physics and says she hopes to uncover the mathematics that governs the networks of neurons that make up the brain. She has also qualified several times for the U.S. National and Junior Olympics fencing championships.

"I've worked quite hard pursuing my academic interests and evidently this group of impressive people thought that I was worthy of this scholarship," she said. "That's a very lovely feeling, but to be honest, it feels very unreal still."

Lam is studying neurobiology and philosophy at Harvard and is executive editor of the Harvard Crimson. He also holds the Guinness world record for standing on an exercise ball for 5 hours and 25 minutes to raise money for charity.

"It's really a dream come true," Lam said of the scholarship. "Oxford is the hub of all the things I really care about. It has an incredible program for studying philosophy and philosophy and law, and a great ethics center."

Lam told The Associated Press that he wants to go into criminal justice reform and change the "current punitive sentences that we have."

Bogue is majoring in politics and founded "Seriatim," the University of Virginia's first journal devoted to American politics and political theory. He has done service work in Haiti and is also on the university's squash team.

Schneider graduated summa cum laude this year from Georgetown, where she majored in Russian language and government. She is a violinist who has performed and conducted around the world, and postponed her admission to Georgetown to study at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory.

Successful applicants are chosen based on academic excellence, energy, ambition and their commitment to make a difference in the world.

This year's scholarship winners will enter Oxford in October 2016.

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