Two Penn students win Marshall Scholarship

Two Penn students received the Marshall Scholarship this year, the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships announced Monday.

Wharton and College senior Corey Metzman and 2009 College graduate Michael Poll were two of around 40 students who won the scholarship, which pays for two years of graduate studies in the United Kingdom. Prior to this year, only 12 Penn students had received the scholarship.

CURF is “of course” pleased with these results, CURF Assistant Director of Communications Aaron Olson said.

Although Sunday’s announcement that Penn had no Rhodes Scholarship recipients was a disappointment, “the Marshall is just as competitive as the Rhodes,” Olson said.

Unlike the Rhodes Scholarship, which awards students two years of postgraduate study at the University of Oxford, the Marshall gives students flexibility for where they want to study, Olson added.

Last spring, Metzman — who is in the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business — received the Truman Scholarship, which provides up to $30,000 in graduate school funds for students who wish to pursue careers in public service.

Metzman, however, plans to pursue the Marshall Scholarship instead. He said he will use the Truman Scholarship for later postgraduate study.

During his two years on the Marshall Scholarship, Metzman hopes to attend the London School of Economics to pursue a Masters of Science degree in Development Studies, followed by a Masters of Science degree in Evidence-Based Social Intervention at Oxford.

The “degrees are fantastic,” Metzman said, adding that they will give him access to a large community of American scholars.

“There are huge opportunities available to Marshall scholars in the U.S.” after their time abroad, Metzman said, referencing past Marshall scholars such as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

Poll, who graduated summa cum laude from Penn with a degree in music, has also won scholarships in the past.

As a 2010 Fulbright scholar at the Academy of Music in Poland, Poll “had the privilege to be completely focused on being a concert musician,” he wrote in an email.

Using the Marshall scholarship, he plans to attend music school in the United Kingdom.

“There’s something very special about the way in which musicians there are trained,” he wrote, explaining that “students are prepared for the challenges of the modern musical career.”

Through the Marshall program, he will pursue his goal of bringing “classical guitar music to people who have no idea what the classical guitar is.”

“I believe very deeply in the power of music to bring people together and to improve lives,” he explained.

CURF was “really helpful and explained everything that was involved” in the application process, Metzman said.

While CURF “is no substitute for doing your homework,” Penn students are lucky to have “such wonderful allies there,” Poll wrote.

Olson said CURF does “all sorts of outreach to find people who both are interested and who would be good candidates.”

He added that although CURF would love to “increase and diversify” the applicant pool of students for these scholarships, it cannot force more people to apply.

“We’re hoping the press on our two winners will encourage more people to talk to us about the Marshalls,” he said.

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