Two From California Win Rhodes Awards

Two Harvard University students from California and a student at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont are among this year’s Rhodes scholarship winners.

Ritu Sonia Batra of Los Angeles and Andre C. Namphy of Palo Alto--both students at the Ivy League school--were among the 32 winners announced Sunday. Claremont McKenna student Ryan M. Iwasaka, of Wailuku, Hawaii, also was awarded the prestigious scholarship.

For the first time, women outnumbered men among the winners, 17 to 15. Women became eligible for the program in 1976.

All 32 will receive scholarships to Oxford University in England through a program established at the turn of the century by the estate of Cecil Rhodes, a British colonist and philanthropist. The program is administered through Pomona College in Claremont.

Judges selected this year’s winners from more than 1,200 applicants. Since the first selection in 1903, 2,691 Americans have won the scholarships, including President Clinton.

Two roommates at Harvard are also among this year’s winners.