Four With Local Ties and Big Goals Head to Oxford to Pursue Studies

"It's a wonderful opportunity to be given, and I hope I can make everyone who has made it possible proud," she said.

At Harvard, Cep is president of the Harvard Advocate literary magazine and an editor at both the Harvard Crimson and Harvard Book Review. For her senior thesis, she is writing a novel under the guidance of her faculty mentor, author Jamaica Kincaid.

Her book is set on the Eastern Shore, where she grew up and graduated from Easton High School. "I hope to end up back in the area and be of service," Cep said. "It could be journalism; it could be literature."

Shelly, a 2003 graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, has his sights on international work.

A senior at the Air Force Academy, Shelly speaks German and did a semester as an exchange student at the German Air Force Academy. He has performed in several musical theater productions, played piano for the chapel orchestra and played squash at the academy.

At Oxford, he hopes to expand his focus from his undergraduate study of computer sciences toward politics and economics or international relations. He will then work as an Air Force pilot but hopes to one day be the Air Force's attache or the U.S. ambassador to Germany.

"I was completely shocked," he said. "I am thrilled to be part of this great group of scholars."

The winners of the scholarship, named for British philanthropist Cecil Rhodes, were selected from 896 applications endorsed by 340 colleges and universities. The 32 recipients come from 21 educational institutions. Harvard had the most Rhodes scholars this year, with six; Yale University had four; Stanford University had three; and Washington University in St. Louis had two.