Boston College senior Robert J. Kubala (pictured above) and 2008 alumnus Kuong Ly (pictured on the front page) are among a handful of Americans to be awarded prestigious George Marshall Scholarships.
Ly, Kubala Earn Marshall Scholarships
Two BC scholars among 40 US students to pursue graduate level study in the United Kingdom
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Boston College senior Robert J. Kubala and 2008 alumnus Kuong Ly are among a handful of Americans to be awarded prestigious George Marshall Scholarships, which support graduate level study in the United Kingdom.No more than 40 young Americans of the highest academic ability are selected annually for the two-year awards. Candidates are selected for distinction in intellect and character — as evidenced by scholarly achievement, outstanding activities, leadership and interests — and are judged on the strength of their proposed study.
"The George Marshall Scholarship is a coveted mark of distinction, given that only 40 of them are awarded throughout the United States," said Vice Provost for Undergraduate Academic Affairs Donald Hafner, director of the University's Fellowships Committee. "The awards are highly competitive, and underscore not only the caliber and dedication of BC undergraduates, but also Boston College's commitment to helping qualified students pursue these valuable opportunities."
"I'm just so thankful for the many opportunities I had here," said Kubala, a native of Austin, Tex. "The best thing about Boston College is that it is Catholic in the universal sense: all inclusive and all embracing. Boston College is a place where no question is excluded from inquiry; it's a place where everyone's ideas can be given a fair hearing."
A philosophy major, Kubala is a member of BC's Presidential Scholars Program and College of Arts and Sciences Honors Program. He received the University's Peter Gray Award for creative achievement in psychology in 2007, and is a two-time winner of advanced study awards from the University, one to support advanced language work in Germany, through translation of anatomist and psychologist Gustav Fritsch's scientific work on electric fish, and the other to support intensive language, linguistics and cultural study at the Nordal Institute in Reykjavik, Iceland.
He is also senior editor for philosophy and theology at Dialogue, the University's undergraduate essay journal, and volunteered on service trips to the Gulf Coast and as a tutor at the Suffolk House of Corrections.
Kubala aspires to follow in his grandfather's footsteps to be a philosophy professor and scholar. He plans to enroll at St. Andrews University in Scotland and study for his master's degree.
"It's a great privilege to be on the path to the vocation of a teacher," said Kubala. "In teaching you both acquire the information in the deepest, most profound sense for yourself, but are also able to transmit it to your students. Some of my best professors at Boston College are the ones who have been able to do that: they love what they teach and they have a deep commitment to their students."
Ly said of his Marshall Scholarship: "This is such a humbling experience. To be selected by a committee that selects individuals who they deem potential future leaders of the US, among a pool of such wonderfully talented applicants, it's pretty indescribable."
Ly already has been nationally recognized for multiple humanitarian efforts in Boston and abroad. His achievements have been earned through his work to promote the plight of marginalized people, particularly the trauma suffered by refugees and displaced persons. The cause is close to his heart: In the late 1970s, his family fled Pol Pot's "killing fields" in Cambodia and migrated throughout Southeast Asia before seeking political asylum in the United States.
Ly will use his Marshall award to study issues of forced migration and refugee care at either Oxford or the University of Essex.
A philosophy major and a minor in studio art at BC, in 2007, Ly was the sole Massachusetts resident to be named a Harry S. Truman Scholar. The following year, he earned a place on USA Today's All-USA College Academic First Team, and, in addition to other awards, received BC's highest prize, the Rev. Edward H. Finnegan, SJ, Award annually presented to the student who best exemplifies the University's motto "Ever to Excel."
Since graduating, Ly has worked at Health Care for All, a Boston-based organization that works to create a consumer-centered health care system to provides comprehensive, affordable, high quality care for everyone, especially the most vulnerable.
The awards to Kubala and Ly bring to five the number of Marshall winners from Boston College over the last decade, enhancing an increasing trajectory of success among BC students in winning prestigious national awards, which over that time period include two Rhodes Scholarships, two Churchill Scholarships, five Mellon Scholarships, seven Truman Scholarships, 10 Goldwater Scholarships, 13 Beckman Scholarships and nearly 130 Fulbright awards, among others.
Melissa Beecher can be reached at melissa.beecher.1@bc.edu