AUSTIN, Texas — Bailey Anderson, a geography senior at The University of Texas at Austin, is the recipient of a 2017 British Marshall Scholarship.
The Marshall scholarship will fund Anderson’s graduate education at the University of Oxford, where she will pursue a Master of Philosophy in Geography: Water Science, Policy and Management.
Awarded to a maximum of 40 students each year, the scholarship will cover Anderson’s university fees, cost of living expenses, books, thesis research and travel, and fares to and from the United States.
“I think winning the Marshall to study something like geography and water resources in a time that is particularly politically tempestuous around the issue of climate change is very powerful,” Anderson said. “I feel very humbled to have received this award and hopeful that I can provide guidance or support to others.”
As a UT Austin student, Anderson was awarded the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Hollings Scholarship, a Fulbright Canada Killam Fellowship and the Teresa Lozano Long Latin American Studies Travel Scholarship, and she was a finalist for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship.
She also held internships with the National Weather Service at the River Forecasting Center in Anchorage, Alaska, the Texas Water Development Board and Texas General Land Office, where she currently works in Geographic Information Systems.
“Bailey Anderson ideally represents the value of experiential learning in our college,” said Randy Diehl, dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “As one of our top student scholars, she applies her learning to real-world challenges both through her research and through her extensive internship experiences.”
The Marshall scholarship, now in its 63rd year, is funded substantially through the government of the United Kingdom. The intention of the Marshall scholarship is to “strengthen the enduring relationship between the British and American peoples, their governments and their institutions,” according to the British Marshall Scholarship website. It was founded as a tribute to the Marshall Plan, which was named for former U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall and through which the United States provided aid to rebuild Europe after World War II.
Anderson is the 12th UT Austin student to receive a Marshall scholarship in the past 16 years. Nelson McKeown, an English, Plan II Honors and Liberal Arts Honors alumna, and Mikaila Smith, a Plan II Honors senior, were both finalists for the scholarship this year.
