Rhodes Scholars: 2 students from Chicago area win

  

November 18, 2012 ( CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Two winners of the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship are from Chicago's suburbs.

Thirty-two American students were named Sunday in the newest group. They'll be awarded scholarships to study at Oxford University.

The Illinois winners are Rhiana Gunn-Wright, who was born and raised in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood before moving to suburban Oak Lawn, and Benjamin Wilcox from suburban Winnetka, Ill.

Gunn-Wright graduated from Yale University with majors in African American studies and women's gender and sexuality studies. She works at the Institute for Women's Policy Research and plans to study comparative social policy at Oxford.

Wilcox is a senior at Harvard University majoring in history. His senior thesis relates to race and Brazilian history. He plans to pursue Latin American studies at Oxford.

Rhodes Scholarships were created in 1902 by the will of British philanthropist Cecil Rhodes and have a value of about $50,000 per year.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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