(CNN) The Rhodes Trust has announced the diverse class of American students who will study at the University of Oxford beginning next year as Rhodes Scholars.

Collectively, the 32 winners mark the third consecutive year that the majority are minorities, and nearly half are first-generation Americans, according to the trust

"This year's American Rhodes Scholars—independently elected by 16 committees around the country meeting simultaneously—once again reflect the extraordinary diversity that characterizes and strengthens the United States," Elliot F. Gerson, American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, said in a statement.

"They will go to Oxford in September 2020 to study in fields broadly across the social, biological and physical sciences, and in the humanities. They are leaders already, and we expect their impact to expand exponentially over the course of their public-spirited careers," he said.

The winners include Kristine E. Guillaume, the first black woman President of the Harvard Crimson, Daine A. Van de Wall, Brigade Commander at West Point, and Hera Jay Brown, a Fulbright-Schuman fellow who the trust says is the first transgender woman selected for the program.

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