The Trustees of the Rhodes Scholarship are pleased to name Fiona Elizabeth Herring as the 2003 Bermudian recipient of the prestigious award for admission to Oxford University.

"I'm really happy," said the 22-year old student. "It certainly was a dream come true."

Ms Herring attended Port Royal Primary School and Saltus Grammar School in Bermuda, and was Head Girl of both.

She graduated from Saltus in 1998 with distinction. From there she entered Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, where she graduated June 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science.

She was a recipient of the Sir Harry D. Butterfield Undergraduate Scholarship and the Nicholl Postgraduate Scholarship.

Currently, Ms Herring is studying a Master of Science in the Analysis, Design and Management of Information Systems at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in London, England.

She expects to complete her Master's in September of 2003.

Ms Herring is applying to study a Master of Philosophy in Social Anthropology at Oxford, a programme which would begin just one month after she completes her first Master's programme at LSE.

Her academic focus had always been computer science, she said, however she always had a side interest in different world cultures, religions, and issues.

That interest was strengthened during the three months she spent on the University of Pittsburgh's Semester at Sea programme at Dartmouth during the fall of 2000.

During that semester she circumnavigated the globe and studied in the nine countries visited en route.

"Anthropology," she said, "pulled together all these interests. The chance to study anthropology at Oxford would be extremely stimulating and fulfilling."

She received her bronze, silver, and gold Duke of Edinburgh Awards through Saltus and obtained her peer-advising qualifications at Dartmouth.

Ms Herring was a member of the Bermuda Sharks Swim Club, and is a keen hockey player who competed for Bermuda at the Junior Pan American Games in Chile.

"It would be an honour and a privilege to represent Bermuda in my studies at Oxford," she said.