Two Syracuse University Seniors Named as Finalists for Prestigious Marshall Scholarship

Syracuse College seniors Gretchen Coleman and Ifeyinwa Ojukwu have been named finalists for the Marshall Scholarship, just one of the United States’ most prestigious nationally aggressive scholarships.

The Marshall Scholarships finance young People of high capacity to study for a graduate diploma in the United Kingdom. Up to 50 students are selected every 12 months to study at the graduate degree at a U.K. institution in any field of study. As future leaders with a lasting being familiar with of British modern society, Marshall Scholars strengthen the enduring relationship concerning the British and American peoples, and their governments and institutions. The range of this year’s scholars will be declared in early December.

Coleman is a political science and political philosophy key in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Community Affairs and the School of Arts and Sciences. She is a Coronat Scholar and a member of and a peer mentor with the Renée Crown University Honors Software.

Coleman is passionate about election reform, voter outreach and increasing accessibility to the ballot. In her property state of Illinois, she has labored extensively at the grassroots level to persuade voting and to make election information and facts available. She is the founder of Ballot Z, a youth voter outreach initiative. Coleman has also volunteered with different campaigns in Illinois and served as an election decide at her community polling places. She is at the moment studying political have faith in among young men and women.

If chosen for a Marshall Scholarship, Coleman ideas to go after a master’s degree in political science with a focus in democracy and elections at the University of Manchester. In the next calendar year of the award, she would go after a master’s degree in political interaction at the College of Glasgow.

In the end, Coleman strategies to consider a position in a county election workplace as an assistant county clerk. She aims to function for two to 3 many years to obtain perception into why challenges crop up in election administration and then transition to the nonprofit sector to address these issues via advocacy. She programs to be part of and eventually guide a nonprofit business that lobbies govt to enact democratic reforms.

“If I ended up to acquire a Marshall Scholarship, I would be a significantly additional productive advocate for obtaining examined in the U.K. Further than establishing capabilities and understanding from finding out democracy and communications, the publicity to British politics would form my advocacy system in the U.S.,” Coleman says. “By discovering from British activists and their ways to political modify, I want to broaden the possible approaches for U.S. electoral reform in my arsenal. Democracy reform can and should really be an region for transnational collaboration, and I want to continue cultivating that exchange.”

Ojukwu is a biology and psychology big in the College or university of Arts and Sciences with a slight in general public wellbeing in the Falk School of Sport and Human Dynamics. She is a Coronat Scholar, a 2021-22 Remembrance Scholar and a member of the Renée Crown University Honors Method. She is a exploration assistant in the Middleton lab at SUNY Upstate Healthcare College, researching a rare neurodegenerative dysfunction. She has also executed investigate at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medication.

Ojukwu has been a student chief in contributing to the University’s diversity and inclusion-related targets. She proposed and advocated for the creation of a new class centered on the intersections of race and wellness. The system Race, Wellness and Healthcare (SOC 300) was offered in the Spring 2021 semester. She is a member of the biology department’s Inclusion, Variety, Equity and Accessibility (Thought) Committee, and provided critical insights to the University’s Business of Diversity and Inclusion as it planned the University’s inaugural Race and Equity Academic Symposium held in February, for which she was also a presenter.

If chosen for the Marshall Scholarship, Ojukwu strategies to pursue a master’s degree in precision medicine (PM) at College School London. Upon completion, she would pursue a combined M.D./MPP (master’s of general public plan) program in the United States.

“Formal training in precision medicine, which is poised to shape the long run of wellness care, would give me a standpoint beyond the traditional professional medical framework,” she suggests. “Ultimately, I want to provide as a bridge among PM investigate, medical observe and health and fitness plan to disrupt race-linked wellness disparities as both equally a health practitioner and well being policy advisor.”

Ojukwu is specially interested in the development and equitable expansion of biobanks in the U.S., which include the All of Us Investigation Plan biobank at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, the country’s major-at any time endeavor in PM investigation. “Given the U.K.’s management in both equally PM and biobank growth, the connections and insights I could achieve as a Marshall Scholar would be integral to my long run work. I also purpose to support facilitate long term U.S./U.K. collaborations on biobank supported exploration.”

Both of those Coleman and Ojukwu worked with the Heart for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising (CFSA) as they designed their apps for the Marshall Scholarship. “Gretchen and Ify are amazing pupils and superb leaders on campus and in their wider communities. They operate in really diverse fields—political science and biology—but they share a enthusiasm for tough exploration and for implementing their scholarship to selling optimistic change in the earth. They each individual have a robust rationale for graduate study in the U.K. so are excellent candidates for the Marshall Scholarship,” suggests Jolynn Parker, director of CFSA. “It has been an complete pleasure to perform with them by way of the application course of action, and we’re so proud that they have been chosen as finalists. Getting selected as a finalist is by itself a remarkable honor in this competitiveness.”