Wisconsin Student Wins Rhodes Scholarship

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A University of Wisconsin-Madison student says winning a Rhodes Scholarship is a "surreal" experience.

Twenty-two-year-old Colin Higgins of Middleton is among 32 American men and women chosen as Rhodes Scholars. The scholarship funds post-graduate studies at Oxford University.

Higgins plans to pursue a master of philosophy degree in geography and the environment at Oxford.

Higgins is a distance runner. He says he would think about how environmental policies can preserve nature during his daily runs through a savanna in a conservancy in his hometown of Middleton.

He says a high school science teacher got him fascinated about how ecosystems function.

Higgins is currently a graduate student in the university's Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs. He expects to complete an accelerated master's degree in public affairs in May.

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