The Marshall Scholarship program has awarded University of Texas at Austin student Dhananjay Jagannathan a scholarship to study ancient philosophy at the University of Oxford and classics and ancient philosophy at the University of Cambridge.
Jagannathan, a Plan II Honors student majoring in philosophy, classics and linguistics, is one of 40 scholars from across the nation who earned the two-year scholarship to study abroad in the United Kingdom.
“The Marshall Scholarship is a wonderful opportunity not only to study at some of the finest universities in the world, but also to live in and contribute to a society that has deep cultural and political ties to our own,” Jagannathan said.
Jagannathan plans to pursue a career as a scholar and a professor, dedicating his work to reforming inadequacies in public schools and higher education systems.
His commitment to education is evident both on and off campus. He has volunteered as a mentor to fifth grade students at KIPP Austin College Prep and has tutored students in mathematics and chemistry at the UT Learning Center, as well as Latin and Greek through the Classics Department. He is a peer mentor and a writing tutor for a Plan II freshman seminar on Greek political thought.
“Faculty members who have worked with and taught Jagannathan agree that he is a rare student who comes along perhaps just once in a professor’s career,” said Larry Carver, director of Liberal Arts Honors and the Doyle Professor of Western Civilization in the Department of English. “He is a remarkable young man whom I have come to admire greatly.”
Jagannathan, an Indian-American who graduated from AandM Consolidated High School in College Station, Texas, has been the recipient of the 2005 National Merit Scholarship, the 2006 Larry Temple Scholarship and the 2008 Beinecke Scholarship. He is a member of honors societies Phi Beta Kappa and Eta Sigma Phi. He also participates in Junior Fellows, an honors research seminar for undergraduates, and Euthyphrones, a Greek reading group sponsored by the joint doctorate program in ancient philosophy.
The Marshall Scholarships, established in 1953, provides American students with the opportunity to attend graduate school at a top British university. Worth about $70,000, the scholarship covers the student’s tuition costs, books, travel and living expenses. The British government pays all expenses.
