5 Georgetown Students and Alumni Named Marshall Scholars for 2024

Five Hoyas have been appointed Marshall Scholars for 2024. Georgetown University now joins Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University as the only institutions to produce five or more Marshall Scholars in any given year.

This year, the three students and two graduates are among 51 recipients of the fellowship, which chooses outstanding American academics to pursue graduate studies at any university in the United Kingdom. This is the first year that Georgetown has produced five or more Marshall Scholars.

“The Marshall Scholarship is a remarkable achievement. On behalf of our entire University community, I wish to offer my most sincere congratulations to the five students and alumni who were selected this past year,” said Georgetown President John J. DeGioia. “This is a wonderful recognition of their commitment to academic excellence and their dedicated efforts to advance the common good of our international community. We look forward to all that they will accomplish in the years ahead.”

Each of this year’s Marshall scholarship recipients collaborated closely with the Center for Research and Fellowships (CRF) to advance their applications for the renowned award. The CRF manages the nomination and development process for any Georgetown student or young alumni interested in applying for a variety of scholarships, including the Marshall and Rhodes Scholarships.

Adrian Ali-Caccamo (SFS’24)

 

Adrian Ali-Caccamo (SFS’24) is committed to addressing educational inequalities.

Ali-Caccamo experienced how under-resourced schools hampered kids’ potential at his St. Paul, Minnesota, high school, where more than 40% of his peers came from low-income households.

Ali-Caccamo spent his time at Georgetown pursuing equity in education, where he helped change the history core curriculum in the School of Foreign Service (SFS), supported the implementation of an undergraduate South Asian Studies certificate, and helped diversify admissions by launching the SFS Ambassador and Peer Mentor Programs to increase outreach to underserved schools and students. He is also one of the first Laidlaw Scholars at Georgetown.

Ali-Caccamo combined his campaigning with teaching experience. He taught children and personally combated the limitations he experienced as a student by teaching and mentoring low-income high schoolers in foreign relations through DC Reads and Georgetown’s cooperation with the National Education Equity Lab. Ali-Caccamo learned the critical need of a pre-kindergarten to post-secondary public education system from these experiences, as well as two policy posts he has held.

“I loved the personal connections, the community and the joy of teaching. But, in each experience, I saw new challenges in the caste system of American education,” Ali-Caccamo says. “The personal-level relationships contributed to systemic level observations: race, zip code and parental education too often predict a child’s life outcomes in the United States.”

Ali-Caccamo intends to study for two master’s degrees in the United Kingdom: one in comparative education at University College London and one in education, public policy, and equity at the University of Glasgow. He thinks that his graduate studies would enable him to design policy initiatives based on empirical evidence to alleviate educational inequality in the United States.

“As someone focused on education policy, I am grateful for the immeasurable impact that my grandparents, parents, teachers and professors have had on my growth. Most importantly, as I begin my graduate studies I will continue using my voice to advocate for those students who have long been under-supported and abandoned by our school system,” Ali-Caccamo said. “I’m often told that changing U.S. education is impossible, but this opportunity reaffirms my belief that we can indeed build a more equitable future for our children if we so desire.”

Hari Choudhari (SFS’24)

Hari Choudhari (SFS’24) received a front-row seat to what it takes to pursue genuine peacebuilding in Northern Ireland this summer as an intern at the Centre for Cross-Border Studies, a territory that still bears permanent scars from the Troubles in the second part of the twentieth century.

During his internship, he also witnessed the inadequacies of a top-down approach to peacebuilding. Choudhari and his colleagues were working in the shadow of the Legacy Bill, a contentious piece of legislation enacted by the House of Commons in September that gives conditional amnesty to anyone guilty of murder during the Troubles.

“Politics, labor markets, identity, purpose — violence leaves nothing unscathed. The victims and witnesses of violence I met in Northern Ireland cannot simply ‘move on,’ having endured far too much to ever accept its return,” Choudhari said. “Yet policymakers, through failing to incorporate community perspectives, hamstring their own ability to understand what true peacebuilding actually entails.”

When he returned from Northern Ireland, Choudhari realized that peacebuilding requires both high-level decisions at the top and the inclusion of marginalized voices and actual victims who have been most harmed by war.

Choudhari, a Laidlaw Scholar at Georgetown, intends to use his Marshall Scholarship to study conflict transformation and social justice at Queen’s University Belfast, as well as global leadership and peacebuilding at King’s College London.

“The Marshall scholarship is an incredible opportunity for me to gain the skills and knowledge necessary to build bridges between policymakers and communities in conflict scenarios,” he said. “ I am grateful for the chance to foster connections in Northern Ireland and across the UK that will fuel my commitment to empathetic, responsive and responsible peacebuilding policy.”

He thinks that his studies in the UK will eventually take him back to the United States, where he aims to work on peacebuilding efforts that prioritize the voices of victims and local communities.

Naomi Greenberg (C’24)

Genes have a 50% chance of being passed on from parent to offspring, according to common knowledge in reproductive biology and genetics. Naomi Greenberg (C’24) was intrigued when she discovered that this was not always the case.

Greenberg was working at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) when she witnessed a gene drive system in action. The likelihood of transmission for a specific gene can reach 100% with this natural system.

“The experience of seeing a real gene drive system in action at the NIH was pivotal for me,” said Greenberg, who is a recipient of the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship. “Witnessing firsthand an exception to the so-called ‘laws’ of genetics turned my theoretical interest into a practical one, and ignited my motivation to become a gene drive researcher.”

One application of gene drive systems for scientists is to prevent mosquitos and their offspring from transmitting malaria.

While this revolutionary approach offers enormous scientific promise, it also raises severe ethical concerns regarding genetic manipulation. That is why Greenberg aspires to be not only a leading geneticist, but also an effective communicator capable of communicating complex biology to the general public in order to build more trust and conversation between scientists and non-scientists.

Greenberg intends to study systems and synthetic biology at Imperial College London and science communication and public engagement at the University of Edinburgh.

She plans to return to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology in order to better understand and contribute to the science of genetics.

“I see this scholarship as the realization of a massive amount of work — of course from the scholars themselves, but also from our professors, advisors and peers who helped along the way. When I found out I had received the Marshall scholarship, I was incredibly surprised,” Greenberg said. “I was also very heartened to see that the selection committee agreed with my goals of improving science communication and science literacy. It is encouraging to see something that seemed so aspirational become possible.”

Michael Lundgren (SFS’22)

Michael Lundgren (SFS’22) began working in early childhood classes as a preschool aide at HoyaKids, a Georgetown childcare center, in the middle of his collegiate career. Following graduation, he moved to St. Louis as part of the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs, a civic leadership program, where he was tasked with developing a strategy that would contribute $250 million to the city’s universal access to early childhood education.

It didn’t take him long to notice the significant differences in early childhood schooling. Lundgren discovered in St. Louis that many families spend more on daycare than on housing, and that childcare providers frequently lack adequate resources to operate.

Lundgren spoke with a group of city childcare providers dedicated to campaigning for local change as part of his fellowship. Lundgren realized there was no single solution to the problem after learning about the challenges childcare providers confront.

“$250 million could help, but it was not enough. Not nearly enough,” Lundgren said. “Childcare is not a commodity, but a basic human necessity … We need a public early childhood care and education system in the United States.”

With his Marshall Scholarship, Lundgren intends to pursue a master’s in education focusing on child development at the University of Oxford, followed by a master’s in education, public policy and equity at the University of Glasgow.

“I am honored to be a Marshall Scholar. I thank my family, teachers and mentors for their support. In particular, I thank Dr. Lauren Tuckley at the Center for Research and Fellowships for believing in me and guiding me through this process,” Lundgren said. “My mission in life is to care for others, and I know my Marshall studies in the UK will help me realize my vision of a world where every child receives the care they need and deserve.”

Anya Wahal (SFS’23)

Growing up in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, Anya Wahal (SFS’23) had an inherent knowledge of how valuable water is to people in dry settings.

Wahal experienced Arizona’s tremendous population growth and development at the expense of depleting restricted water supplies at the same time.

Wahal wanted to know how water scarcity affected rural farmers, so she embarked on an anthropological and policy research project in her native state. In rural Arizona, Wahal visited with over 30 farmers. In addition to learning how these farmers dealt with the drought, Wahal established long-term relationships with the local people based on mutual trust and understanding.

“It showed me the need to uplift those most affected by water crises, not blaming them,” said Wahal, who has been a Pelosi Scholar and a Provost’s Fellow at Georgetown. “The perception in Arizona is that farmers are at fault for the worsening water crisis — yet after meeting farmers firsthand, I realized that most actually wanted to be water-conscious.”

Wahal hopes to use her Marshall Scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in water science, policy, and management at the University of Oxford. Wahal eventually intends to return to the United States to obtain a Ph.D. and further her study in order to become an academic practitioner in water policy and management.

“The opportunity to study at Oxford — my dream program — positions me to become the best interdisciplinary water researcher I can be. When I first got the call, I was in shock — I started crying and shaking, and thanked the chair for the ‘best news ever,’ Wahal said. “I hope to use this scholarship to continue fighting for water justice for the rest of my career and cannot emphasize enough what this means not just for me, but for my family and for everyone who has helped me along the way.”