N.B. news: Childhood friends named Rhodes Scholars [Video]

Two young women from New Brunswick have won one of the most prestigious and sought-after academic honours in the world.

Not only are Claire Wilbur and Alyssa Xu Rhodes Scholars – they’re also childhood friends.

Wilbur is completing an honours degree in biochemistry from Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., where she has a perfect 4.3 GPA.

She is also captain of the university cross-country team, volunteers with Soldier On campaign, which is a charity working with wounded and ill soldiers and veterans, and is a research assistant at the New Brunswick Heart Centre, where she is studying high-risk cardiac interventions.

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Xu is currently completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in neuroscience while writing an honours thesis at Amherst College in Massachusetts.

She is a varsity hockey player and is president of the Amherst chapter of Amnesty International.

Xu also volunteers with a mobile health clinic, and is an EMT for Amherst College Emergency …