Mass Academy Alumnus Akshayaa Chittibabu C’2015 Named as Marshall Scholar
Washington – The British Government today unveiled the recipients of the 2019 Marshall Scholarships, the largest class in the Scholarship programme’s 65-year history. 48 outstanding undergraduate students from across the United States were selected, marking the 3rd straight year in which the number of awards has grown and a 50 percent increase in Scholarships offered since 2016.
Ms. Chittibabu, Mass Academy (2015, University of Connecticut 2019) will study at University of Oxford next year. “My warmest congratulations to the new generation of Marshall Scholars, who make up the largest intake in the history of the Scholarship”, said Sir Kim Darroch, British Ambassador to the United States. “This class embodies the qualities that bind our two countries: a spirit of collaboration, an intellectual curiosity and a commitment to education and diversity. The British Government is proud to welcome these scholars to their studies in the UK. The Scholarship programme has never been stronger and is a wonderful demonstration of the strength of our transatlantic bond.”
Christopher Fisher, who chairs the Marshall Scholarship Program, added: “This further increase in the number of awards reflects growing support from leading British universities and colleges as well as the continuing commitment of the British Government. I very much welcome the strong message this sends as to the enduring value of the Marshall Scholarship Program and believe we now have a sustainable model to be making 45-48 awards in future years.”
The 2019 Marshall Scholarship class that will travel to the UK next year will also be the most diverse class in history: over 40% of the 2019 class are from minority backgrounds and the 29 women selected represent the largest number of women ever selected in a single class. This achievement symbolically coincides with today’s launch of NASA Astronaut and Marshall Scholar (’02) Anne McClain to the International Space Station, where she’ll be one of the youngest Astronauts ever to serve aboard the orbiting station.
Two US undergraduate institutions, Whitman College (WA) and Georgia College & State University, will send Marshall Scholars to the UK for the first time in their schools’ histories, while Dickinson College (PA) won its first Marshall Scholarship since 1974. Overall, the 2019 class represent a wide range of academic backgrounds and includes Guinness World Record holders, award-winning independent filmmakers, Division I athletes, TedX speakers, accomplished poets and four service academy graduates who will begin service in the U.S. Military upon completion of their degrees.
Winners were selected following a rigorous and high-competitive selection process that drew over 1,000 applications from top undergraduate students representing institutions across the United States. The program is principally funded by the British Government, but also benefits from generous support through partnership arrangements with world-leading British academic institutions, allowing winners to pursue graduate degrees in almost any academic subject at any university in the UK. The 2019 class will take up their studies at institutions across the UK beginning in September next year.
The Scholarship program also continues to receive generous support from the Association of Marshall Scholars (AMS), the official alumni organisation of the Marshall Scholarship. Through the AMS, alumni provide substantial support to the program and current scholars on a continual basis in a variety of ways.
“The next generation of American leaders – exemplified in the 2019 Marshall Scholar class – will play an important role in strengthening the ties between the United Kingdom and the United States.” Said Nell Breyer, Executive Director of the Association of Marshall Scholars. “The AMS is proud to welcome 48 outstanding individuals to the generations of Marshall Scholars committed to advancing knowledge, international understanding and prosperity of our two nations.”
About the Marshall Scholarship Named for Secretary of State George C. Marshall, the Marshall Scholarship Program began in 1953 as a gesture of gratitude to the people of the United States for the assistance that the UK received after World War II under the Marshall Plan. Since that time, it has remained uniquely positioned among national Scholarships for its prestige and scope: offering talented young Americans the chance to study any academic subject at UK universities of their choice for up to 3 years. This has given rise to an unprecedented breadth of expertise in almost every academic field, producing numerous university presidents, six Pulitzer Prize winners, one Nobel Laureate, fourteen MacArthur Fellows, two-academy-Award nominees, two Supreme Court Justices and a NASA Astronaut.
With over 2,000 Scholarships awarded to date, Marshall Scholars are leading the conversation and direction of some of the most critical issues of our time. Prominent alumni of the Scholarship program include:
● Supreme Court Associate Justices Stephen Breyer and Neil Gorsuch
● Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Anne Applebaum, Tom Friedman, Jeffrey Gettleman and Dan Yergin
● William Burns, Former US Deputy Secretary of State
● Reid Hoffman, Philanthropist and founder of social networking platform LinkedIn.
● Anne McClain, NASA Astronaut currently serving aboard the International Space Station.
● Joshua Oppenheimer, Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker
● Dr. Douglas Melton, Xander University Professor at Harvard University and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
● Nancy Gibbs, Former Managing Editor of TIME Magazine
● Roger Tsien, 2008 Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry
● Ray Dolby, Inventor of Dolby Sound and former Chairman of Dolby Laboratories
For more information, visit http://www.marshallscholarship.org/news/view…
Comments are closed.