Two Yalies win Gates
Two Yalies win Gates
Friday, February 12, 2010
Two Yale students have been awarded the Gates Cambridge Scholarship this year for graduate study at the University of Cambridge in England, the Office of Fellowship Programs announced Thursday.
Joshua Silverstein ’10 and Amy Watson ’10, both history majors in Jonathan Edwards College, will pursue masters of philosophy beginning this coming October — Silverstein in international relations and Watson in early modern history.
Amy Watson ’10 and Joshua Silverstein ’10, both history majors, were awarded the Gates Cambridge Scholarship on Thursday.
Amy Watson ’10 and Joshua Silverstein ’10, both history majors, were awarded the Gates Cambridge Scholarship on Thursday.
Established in 2000 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the highly competitive Gates Cambridge Scholarship has been awarded to 29 American students this year, from a pool of approximately 800 applicants. Harvard boasted the largest number of scholarship recipients with four students named Gates scholars. The University of Pennsylvania had three winners, and Stanford University also had two recipients.
According to its Web site, the Gates Cambridge Trust awards scholarships according to four main criteria: intellectual ability, leadership potential, a commitment to improving the lives of others and whether the candidate is a good fit with Cambridge. Last year, four Yale students received the scholarship.
Silverstein, who is from New York City, is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and participated in last year’s “Studies in Grand Strategy” seminar. He is also a member of the Jonathan Edwards Student Activities Committee and has performed in over a dozen theatrical productions.
“I wanted to study international relations in a new environment filled with diverse and often conflicting opinions that would force me to deepen and broaden my own understanding of the security dilemmas of the 21st century,” Silverstein said in an e-mail. He added that the Gates Cambridge Scholarship was particularly appealing because of its focus on the application of that knowledge to improve the lives of others.
Watson, who hails from Birmingham, Ala., said she always wanted to pursue graduate studies in the United Kingdom because her primary field of interest is early modern English history.
At Yale, Watson is involved with the Yale Children’s Theater and has run its “Hands On!” workshop for 4- to 11-year old children for two years. She also acts in YCT shows and will appear in the company’s production of “The Ugly Duckling” next week.
Like Silverstein, Watson said she applied to the Gates Cambridge Scholarship because of its service focus. She said she plans to write her dissertation on the connections between anti-dissent propaganda and anti-Whig propaganda in the late 17th century.
Yale U.K. and Irish Fellowships Associate Director Katherine Dailinger said she is delighted for Silverstein and Watson, who traveled to Annapolis, Md., amid blizzard conditions to interview for the scholarship last week.
Dailinger added that she hopes that after the scholarship’s international student winners are announced, additional Yale students will join the pair.
Interviews for international students are scheduled for late March.
Comments
None 2 years, 3 months ago
Congratulations Amy!!!
None 2 years, 3 months ago
4 from Harvard 3 from Penn 2 from Yale, and 1 from Princeton
... among the 30 winners
http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/article/three-gates-scholarships-awarded-penn-students
None 2 years, 3 months ago
... for which we should give Carmen full props, to report winners at the other Ivies and two at Stanford.
None 2 years, 3 months ago
Congratulations to Amy and Josh!
None 2 years, 3 months ago
Congratulations to the winners but still funny how the article conspicuously avoided reporting on the 4 winners from H.
None 2 years, 3 months ago
Congrats Amy!!
None 2 years, 3 months ago
“I wanted to study international relations in a new environment filled with diverse and often conflicting opinions that would force me to deepen and broaden my own understanding of the security dilemmas of the 21st century,” Silverstein said in an e-mail.
He'll fit right in
None 2 years, 3 months ago
Did you read the article? See the third paragraph.
None 2 years, 3 months ago
8, okay, got it now, I was initially relying on #4's comment so assumed this was not mentioned in the article.
None 2 years, 3 months ago
Every time we find ourselves obligated to mention the numbers at H compared to us it makes us seem that much more insecure.
It's like the Yale Wikipedia article, which mentions the huge H-Y rivalry. The Harvard article makes no such mention. Harvard's silence says it all. Why should Yale care? Let's focus on our own community and not become the competitive lot we so often deride in Cambridge.
None 2 years, 3 months ago
Way to go Josh!
All of GS is proud of you.
None 2 years, 3 months ago
I'm unclear on why the numbers at other Ivies are relevant. It's an article about Yale students winning an award - which other schools had winners shouldn't matter to anyone but the "let's compare ourselves to Harvard in everything we do" crowd.
Congrats to Amy and Josh!
None 2 years, 3 months ago
Why do Harvard students ALWAYS read and comment on our YDN? STAY IN YOUR NECK OF THE WOODS! And reading skills are a necessity in law school.
None 2 years, 3 months ago
hahahaha shoo harvard is absolutely right. Why have they got to read all about here and post their complaints! Maybe they need to get some inspiration from YDN to improve their school paper:)
None 2 years, 3 months ago
Every time an article comes out about Yale students winning fellowships, there are comments castigating the YDN for not reporting relevant numbers at other Ivies.
Who cares? You can't possibly be making the case that the difference between two and four Gates scholars provides any information about the relative quality of various schools. Grow up.
Congratulations to Amy and Josh for their accomplishments.
None 2 years, 3 months ago
Congrats, guys!
None 2 years, 3 months ago
has anyone else noticed that amy has managed to work being from alabama into nearly every conversation she has? good god, it's not that interesting.
None 2 years, 2 months ago
Wow, commentator #17, how does this have anything to do with Amy winning a Gates? Jealous much?
I hate when people treat anonymous posting forums as an excuse to be jerks.
Congrats to Amy and Josh.
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