WASHINGTON
Thirty-two college students from across the United States — three of whom attend school in Pennsylvania — have been selected as Rhodes Scholars for 2006, the scholarship trust announced Sunday.
The scholars, selected from 903 applicants who were endorsed by 333 colleges and universities, will enter Oxford University in England next October. The scholarships are the oldest of the international study awards available to American students and provide two or three years of study at Oxford.
Luke Norris, 20, a senior at Gettysburg College, said he was floored when he found out Saturday that he had won. He is Gettysburg’s first Rhodes Scholar since 1917.
“I was just thrilled, shocked, not able to think,” said Norris, a political science major interested in international relations.
One of the areas he hopes to study is how international relations is changing now that “non-state actors” such as terrorist groups are playing more of a role in the world.
“I’m particularly interested in the changing structure of the international system, post-Cold War,” said Norris, who lived much of his life in Bucks County in suburban Philadelphia before moving to Brigantine, N.J. “I think we’re seeing needs for substantive changes in international law.”
