Lebanese Diala Masri, first Arab to receive Rhodes scholarship

Lebanese student, Diala Masri, has won the Rhodes scholarship from Oxford University, Britain, in a historic launch for the region. The Rhodes Scholarship is awarded annually to high achiever students from all over the world to complete their studies and has opened its doors for the first time to students coming from Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan, noting that the other two lucky persons are Hisham Abu Shamma and Nur Arafa from Palestine.  Masri holds a Bachelors of Art with distinction in International Affairs from the Lebanese American University in 2014 and has received the Torch Awards and a master’s degree in policy economics through a Fulbright scholarship from Williams College. She was a laureate of the Harvard World Model United Nations and won the Diplomacy Award in New York in 2012. Currently, Masri is working as a research assistant in economics at Williams. She seeks to shape economic policies in the Middle East to help overcome obstacles to growth. (L’Orient Le Jour, December 30, 2016)