BOSTON (AP) - Forty-six students from across the United States have been chosen to receive Marshall Scholarships that will enable them to study in the United Kingdom, the British government announced Sunday.
For the first time in the program’s 66-year history, 52% of the class are members of minority communities, including a record number of Black and Latinx scholars. A majority are female and six are first-generation college students.
The 2021 class will take up their studies next September at 14 institutions across the U.K.
“This class, one of the most diverse and inclusive in the program’s history, is a wonderful mirror of modern American society and demonstrates the vital role that the Marshall Scholarship continues to play in maintaining a vibrant U.S.-U.K. relationship,” Karen Pierce, the British ambassador to the United States said in a statement announcing the recipients.
The program, created in 1953 and principally funded by the British government, began as a gesture of gratitude to the U.S. for assistance the U.K. received after World War II under the Marshall Plan, the program that aided in Europe’s economic recovery between 1948 and 1951.
Of the 35 U.S. institutions represented in the class, nearly half are from state or public universities.
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