Maryland Student Among Rhodes Scholars

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Maryland student is one of 32 Americans selected as Rhodes Scholars to study at Oxford University in England.

Chris Dobyns of Highland was among those named Sunday for the prestigious scholarship. The 23-year-old credits his grandfather, a Methodist minister, for igniting an interest in other cultures. Dobyns says his grandfather would often preach at African-American and Asian congregations while he was growing up.

Dobyns is majoring in African studies at Cornell University. He says he plans to study forced migration, refugee issues and environmental change and management at Oxford. Eventually, Dobyns says he hopes to address environmental issues in the developing world, and he has traveled to Africa and elsewhere to better understand the cultures in those regions.

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