The British Government announced the recipients of the 2019 Marshall Scholarships, the largest class in the scholarship program’s 65-year history.
48 outstanding undergraduate students from across the United States were selected, marking the third straight year in which the number of awards has grown and a 50 percent increase in scholarships offered since 2016.
Her Majesty’s Consul General in New York and Trade Commissioner for North America, Antony Phillipson, said: “We are thrilled to award this year’s Marshall Scholarships to a diverse and talented group of students. As the seven winners from the New York region head off to the UK and some of the best universities in the world, we wish them all the best. I look forward to the chance to meet them and I know that through their leadership and intellect they, like their Marshall predecessors, will make an enormous contribution to the UK/U.S. relationship in the future.”
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 U.S. 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.”
The full list of 2019 winners for the New York Region:
Student | U.S. University/Other | UK University | Scholar Hometown |
John Brake | University of Virginia | University of Cambridge | Swarthmore, PA |
Kyle Swanson | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | University of Cambridge | Bronxville, NY |
Justin Lee | Harvard University | University of Oxford | New York, NY |
Madeleine Schneider | United States Military Academy | University of Edinburgh | Darien, CT |
Gabriella Cook Francis | CUNY - Hunter College | University of Oxford | Upper East Side, NYC |
Julie Uchitel | Duke University | University of Cambridge | Southampton, PA |
Ararat Gocmen | Princeton University | University College London | Fort Lee, NJ |
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 2,400 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
The full list of 2019 Marshall Scholars can be found here.