OXFORD, England: The Rhodes Trust has announced the 2022 class of U.S. Rhodes scholars, which includes the largest number of women ever selected for the one-year scholarship.

For 2022, twenty-two of the 32 U.S. students chosen to study at the University of Oxford in England are women.

"It feels amazing to be part of this historic moment, as a woman and as a woman from the South," said Louise Franke, 21, from South Carolina's Clemson University.

Also among the winners is Devashish Basnet, a senior studying political science at New York City's Hunter College, who arrived in the U.S. as a 7-year-old asylum seeker from Nepal.

Now 22, Basnet of Hicksville, New York, said he was proud to represent the communities he came from, especially as a product of New York City public schools.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the selection process was completed virtually for the second consecutive year.

Also, for the first time in some 25 years, Claremont McKenna College, Mount Holyoke College and Union College have a scholarship recipient.

All 32 scholars are expected to begin their studies at Oxford University in October.