Meet Brandon E. Turner, Rhodes Scholar

This is awesome. I am glad that his story is being told. We hear so much negativity about young African American males, this is a refreshing story. This is truly an uplifting moment as we go into the holiday season.

African Americans dismayed by the paucity of their own chosen for the prestigious Rhodes scholarships each year were not encouraged when most of the class of 2012 was announced in November.

Only one African American -- Brandon E. Turner, a senior biophysics major at Wake Forest University -- gained entry to the select circle whose internationally coveted prize is two years of study at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, on a scholarship worth approximately $50,000 annually.

African-American optimists, on examining Turner's sterling credentials, see an extraordinary scholar-athlete who is the first black person among the 12 Rhodes winners whom Wake Forest University has produced within the past 25 years.

The Rhodes Scholarship Trust, located in Vienna, Va., has announced 70 scholarship recipients so far this year, at least 12 of whom are of African descent.

Read more at source