GREAT FALLS - Raphael Graybill is probably one of the few Rhodes Scholars who once a week dons a bulletproof vest. But that's part of his equipment as an unpaid and unarmed auxiliary police officer with the New York Police Department.

"He's this skinny, white kid patrolling Harlem," said his mother, Jessica Crist of Great Falls. "He's had both the ivory tower and the gritty street, and he's had a whole association with a different set of people."

The 2006 graduate of Great Falls High School was one of 32 winners announced Sunday for the scholarships that provide all expenses for two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England.

The 20-year-old Graybill is a senior at Columbia University where he's majoring in political science. He plans to study what he calls the intersection of media, politics and psychology at Oxford.

"My interest is primarily in information, and media as a conduit of that, and how that affects opinion," he said.

He saw some of that last summer when he worked on the health team of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, where he was struck by differences in policy developments and in what was capturing the public's attention. The much-discussed public option portion of the legislation has became a symbol for both sides, partly because it's easy to understand, he said.

"It's interesting to watch the staff that you're on hack out the real minutiae of policy, and yet to see the narrative of health care reform is completely different," he said.

Graybill learned he was a Rhodes Scholar on Saturday, about the same time the U.S. Senate voted to move the health care reform legislation to the floor for a full debate.

"It was a nice double win," he said.

Graybill has been approached to run for political office in Montana, but that will have to wait until his studies have been completed.

As for his police job, he said he's never felt threatened in his four years walking a beat.

"People don't approach police trying to mess with police," he said. "It's very safe and you're linked into a network of thousands of officers. If you're policing the right way, you're not living in an adversarial relationship with the rest of the community."

Graybill has also been awarded a Marshall Scholarship, which sends students to a college of their choice in the United Kingdom. He said he'll choose the Rhodes, which will likely allow another Montana native to be awarded the Marshall.