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Mason native Camille Borders picked as Rhodes Scholar

Posted at 4:30 AM, Jan 05, 2018
and last updated 2018-01-05 07:32:07-05

MASON, Ohio -- Camille Borders is heading to college in Oxford - not the one in Butler County, but the one in England. 

The Mason native is one of this year's 32 American Rhodes Scholars, joining a notable list like Bill Clinton, Susan Rice and George Stephanopolous. It's one of the highest honors a college student can get.

"It gives me goosebumps just to think about it," Borders said.

Borders is a senior at Washington University in St. Louis. Before that, she was an award-winning Girl Scout. 

"The Girl Scout mission is to build girls of courage, confidence and character to make a difference," Girl Scouts of Western Ohio CEO Roni Luckenbill said. "And that's what she does."

Borders practically grew up with the Girl Scouts. She credits them with helping her with her leadership goals.

"They cultivate belief in yourself, which is a priceless thing," she said.

In St. Louis, Borders worked to increase campus diversity when turbulence erupted around the death of Michael Brown. She was teargassed in a protest off-campus when there was no indictment in Brown's death.

Borders said she went "to be another body there, to show my support."

Now Borders is excited about what lies ahead, even after Oxford. After she graduates from Washington University in the spring, she will begin her studies in Oxford in the fall. She plans to get a master's in history.

"I want to be a professor," she said. "I want to be doing research that is groundbreaking and also accessible to communities."