Curing cancer is ambitious but that’s exactly what Vidal Arroyo says he hopes to do.

He spends most of his time in the lab, as a Biochemistry and Molecular Issue major at Chapman University in Orange. He’s the university’s first ever Rhodes Scholar.

“It’s been a blur to be completely honest. I definitely haven’t processed winning the scholarship,” says Arroyo.

He received the honor last month. Only 32 students out of about 2500 who apply in the United States receive the scholarship and the opportunity to study at one of the world’s most acclaimed school's — the University of Oxford in England. 

The scholars are chosen for their academics, as well as leadership in their field and exceptional commitment and character, things that Arroyo demonstrates just can’t be taught.

He’ll tell you he’s a commuter student but for him commuting doesn’t mean driving. It means taking the train from Laguna Niguel to Orange, something he’s done his entire college career. 

“It’s like wow. I won this crazy scholarship then it’s like I still take the train home and get in the car with my mom and let her drive me home. It’s very humbling,” he says.

He packs a bag to get him through the day. He has no choice. His family couldn’t afford to buy him a car. He doesn’t even have a driver’s license.

“Most students live here on campus and they just roll out of bed and 15 minutes later they’re in class, and for him to get to class he really has to spend quite a bit of time to take the train and he makes that effort every day,” says his professor Melissa Rowland-Goldsmith.

He‘s the first member of his family to go to college.

“Me winning this scholarship isn’t just a past four years of college kind of thing. It’s really been the past nine to 10 years of my family’s life. Their influence on me has been huge. I’m really a product of them. So I’m really here because of them and what they’ve instilled in me and what they’ve shown me,” Arroyo says.

And when Vidal tells his life’s story, he’ll be able to say that when there was a fork in the road, he took the train and wound up in Oxford.