Two African Americans Win Gates Cambridge Scholarships

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has announced 29 American winners of the Gates Cambridge Scholarships. The students selected were chosen from a field of 800 applicants, which was narrowed to 104 candidates who were interviewed in early February in Annapolis, Maryland.

The Gates Cambridge Scholarships are open to students who reside outside the United Kingdom. The program is funded by a $210 million donation made to the University of Cambridge in 2000 by the Gates Foundation. Since the establishment of the program, there have been 911 Gates Scholars from 91 countries across the globe.

Students selected for the awards receive full tuition for their master’s or Ph.D. studies at the University of Cambridge in England. In addition, each student receives a £12,500 stipend to cover living expenses as well as airfare to and from Britain.

This year two African Americans are among the 29 U.S. students chosen as Gates Cambridge Scholars:

• Donielle Johnson of Alexandria, Virginia, is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in psychology. She will study for a master’s degree in psychiatry at Cambridge. She hopes to conduct research on the behavior of children with autism. Johnson plans to pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.

• Queen Nworisara Quinn, from Orlando, Florida, is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and holds a master’s degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She currently works in the Office of the Vice President for Infrastructure, Private Sector, and Regional Integration at the African Development Bank in Tunisia. She plans to obtain a master’s degree at Cambridge and a Ph.D. in management.

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