SASHA-MAE ECCLESTON, a Brown University senior from Lawrenceville, N.J. and a graduate of the NJ SEEDS programme, has been selected as a Rhodes Scholar for 2006. She was among 32 students selected nationwide.
Nine hundred and three students applied for the prestigious scholarship.
Eccleston and her fellow scholars 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 to three years of study at Oxford.
RAISED IN THE UNITED STATES
Eccleston, 21, a native of Jamaica, was raised in the United States after immigrating at age 4.
She is concentrating at Brown in Greek, Latin and Literary Arts. She graduated from the Lawrenceville School after completing the NJ SEEDS programme.
NJ SEEDS provides honours classes and leadership training to high-achieving, lower-income students.
"This is a dream come true," says Eccleston. "But I still can't believe it".
Eccleston says she plans to do graduate work in Greek and Latin at Oxford. "First SEEDS, then Lawrenceville, then Brown and now a Rhodes. Life doesn't get much better than this. My promise is to use my education to give back as much as I possibly can".
