Duke Announces University Scholarship Awards
Scholarships designed to stimulate an interdisciplinary, intergenerational community of scholars
Eleven high school graduates, including six international students, have been named winners of the prestigious University Scholarships at Duke University.
The University Scholars Program was created in 1998 with a gift from Duke trustee and alumna Melinda French Gates and her husband Bill Gates, through the William H. Gates Foundation. The program is designed to stimulate an interdisciplinary, intergenerational community of scholars.
The full value of each scholarship is more than $220,000 over four years and covers full tuition, room, board and mandatory fees. The award is given to students who represent a range of personal and intellectual backgrounds and share an excitement for original research, collaborative thinking and innovative scholarship.
More information about the incoming class of University Scholars is available at http://www.duke.edu/web/usp/.
This year's recipients are:
-- Mehmet Yavuz Acikalin, of Kocaeli, Turkey.
-- Olusegun Isaac Babatunde II, of Clackamas, Ore., a graduate of Clackamas High School in Clackamas, and son of Lorraine Knudson and Olusegun Babatunde Sr.
-- Yilin "Linda" Cao, of Orlando, Fla., a graduate of Timber Creek High School in Orlando, and daughter of Qinyao Xu and Junfeng Cao.
-- Hersh Shailesh Desai, of Wilmington, N.C., a graduate of New Hanover High School in Wilmington, and son of Jayna and Shailesh Desai.
-- Yihan Fan, of Beijing, China.
-- Jordan Fraser, of Westmount, Quebec, Canada, a graduate of Lower Canada College in Montreal, and son of Donna Doherty and Ross Fraser.
-- Christopher-Marcus Gibson, of Wake Forest, N.C., a graduate of Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh, N.C., and son of Rochelle Gibson. -- Palden Gyal, of Flekke, Norway, a graduate of the Red Cross Nordic UWC in Flekke, and the son of Nammo and Tarndin Gyal.
-- Albert Hu, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, a graduate of Northern Secondary School in Toronto and son of Guoju Lian and Futai Hu.
-- Nikola Mrksic, of Belgrade, Serbia, a graduate of Mathematical High School in Belgrade, and son of Zivodarka Puric-Mrksic and Ljubomir Mrksic.
-- Paul Thomas Wright, of Raleigh, N.C., a graduate of Raleigh Charter High School in Raleigh, and son of Debbie and Peter Wright.