A Record Crop of Scholarship Winners

When he heard that five students had won Marshall scholarships, entitling them to two years of study in the United Kingdom, John Pearson was overjoyed. “I’m just delighted and I hope this will continue,” says the director of Stanford’s Bechtel International Center. The five join two Rhodes scholars named in November, bringing the University’s combined total to a record seven recipients. “It’s a tremendous compliment to the students who applied,” Pearson says.

Increased outreach by Pearson and other administrators probably didn’t hurt, either. This year, 48 students and young alumni applied for the prestigious scholarships, up from 32 last year and 18 four years ago, at the height of the Internet boom.

The Marshall winners include recent graduates Sameer Ahmed, ’03, who is completing an internship at the American University in Cairo, and Michael Sulmeyer, ’02, a special assistant at the Department of Defense. The others, Marden Nichols, Nick Rodriguez and Tracy Williams, are current seniors. Alex Bradford, a junior who will graduate this spring, is headed to Ireland on a Mitchell scholarship.