Four Jayhawks to compete for Rhodes, Marshall and Kanders Churchill scholarships
LAWRENCE — Three current University of Kansas students and a recent graduate have been endorsed for prestigious fellowships for study in the United Kingdom with the support of KU's Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships.
Current graduate student Emmelea Schatz, seniors Elizabeth Dinh and Emily Ward, and alumna Mahala Higginbotham have been endorsed for the Marshall Scholarship, which provides funding for 1-2 years of graduate study at any university in the United Kingdom. Dinh and Ward were also endorsed for the Rhodes Scholarship, which provides expenses for 1-3 years of study at the University of Oxford. Ward was also endorsed for the Kanders Churchill Scholarship, which provides funding for a one-year Master’s in Public Policy at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge.
Regional panels review applications for both the Rhodes and Marshall scholarship programs. Finalists for the competitions are invited to participate in interviews in November in Chicago. Only U.S. citizens can apply for the Marshall and Churchill scholarships, while the Rhodes Scholarship has 20 constituencies around the world, including the United States and Canada as well as a Global Rhodes Scholarship program.
The Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships, a unit of Undergraduate Education in Academic Affairs, coordinates KU's endorsement process and supports candidates as they work through applications. Students interested in applying for these awards are encouraged to contact the office by email at curf@ku.edu. Depending on other eligibility requirements, students may apply for these awards as graduating seniors or recent graduates. The next campus application deadline for these awards is May 19, 2025.
KU students have previously won nine Marshall Scholarships and 27 Rhodes Scholarships.
Elizabeth Dinh
Elizabeth Dinh, from Liberal, is the daughter of Victor Dinh and Diane Le and a graduate of Liberal High School. Dinh is majoring in business analytics and information systems. She plans to pursue a doctorate and teach data science in education studies internationally and collaborate with nonprofit organizations to ensure equitable access to technology in education. In spring 2024, Dinh held a lab assistant position in the Behavioral Lab within the KU School of Business, focusing on the behavioral aspects of consumers. This past summer, she completed a cybersecurity, risk and regulatory internship with PwC Advisory in New York City. Dinh currently serves as a student assistant for Jayhawk Academic Advising and a teaching assistant for IST 320: Fundamentals of Software Development for the School of Business. Dinh is the recipient of the School of Business Scholarship for leadership and academic merit and KU Global Business Studies Scholarship. She also is a Business Leadership Program and Multicultural Business Scholarship Program participant.
Mahala Higginbotham
Mahala Higginbotham, from Red Oak, Texas, is the daughter of Mark Higginbotham and Kathy Hodges and a graduate of Red Oak High School. Higginbotham graduated with honors distinction from KU in May 2023 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and minor in anthropology. She is preparing for a career in global interfaith reconciliation. Her undergraduate studies converged on a passion for cultural exchange. Working with KU’s Emerging Scholars research assistant program and the Project on the History of Black Writing, which is dedicated to the archivization and preservation of Black literature, Higginbotham focused on the importance of multicultural education and intercultural healing. In 2021, Higginbotham presented research on spirituality and self in “Meridian” by Alice Walker at the Humanities Education and Research Association conference, and under a research grant from KU in 2023, she researched religious and sociopolitical pressures on Transylvania during the reign of the Ottoman Empire while at a funerary excavation with Archaeotek. She currently works at a community mental health center in preparation for a career in community-oriented approaches to interfaith healing.
Emmelea Schatz
Emmelea Schatz, from Libertyville, Illinois, is the daughter of Joseph Schatz and Patricia Mulder and a graduate of Libertyville High School. She is in her final year of the Master of Architecture program in the housing and social entrepreneurship pathway. She is planning a career researching environmentally protective design technology and integrating sustainable construction technologies within public and civic urban spaces. Schatz is involved in design research in the workshop of Keith Van de Riet, professor of architecture, studying ecologically restorative seawall infrastructure on the Florida coastline. In addition, she led the first KU student group travelling to Ecuador to participate in a design-build community project that instructs future design leaders on solutions addressing climate change and economic resiliency through sustainable building materials. Schatz also served as events director, Earth coordinator and student gardener through the KU Center of Community Outreach and is currently completing an architectural internship at Future Firm in Chicago.
Emily Ward
Emily Ward, from Manhattan, is the daughter of Dr. Jeffrey Ward and Michele Ward and a graduate of Manhattan High School. She is majoring in anthropology and political science with a minor in Spanish. Ward’s future plans include earning a master’s in applied anthropology with an emphasis on forensics followed by a doctorate in anthropology. She aspires to become a board-certified forensic anthropologist in the United States. Ward worked with Jennifer Raff, associate professor of anthropology, in the Anthropological Genomics Lab for three years and presented a poster on pathologies at a site in Ecuador at the Society for American Archaeology conference in New Orleans. She will present on this same topic at the National Collegiate Honors Council Conference in Kansas City this October. In fall 2024, Ward began her senior thesis project on dog domestication in the Yukon with Lauren Norman, assistant professor of anthropology, as well as a research project on applications of ground penetrating radar in forensic anthropology with Blair Schneider, associate researcher with the Kansas Geological Survey. She has also attended archaeological field schools in Ecuador and Spain. Ward is involved in the KU honors program as both a seminar assistant and honors ambassador and has served as the president, vice president and treasurer of the Honors Community Advocates. She works on campus as a student ambassador, giving tours and sharing experiences with prospective students, and has played in the KU Symphony Orchestra since her freshman year. Ward is a member of both Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa. She has also received several awards and honors including the Emmett L. Bennett award in 2024 for recognition in the KU Department of Political Science, was named a University Scholar in 2023, was a 2023–2024 KU Truman Scholarship endorsed nominee and received the Kathleen McCluskey Fawcett Outstanding Contribution Award for her work in the University Honors Program.