Penn student and 2018 graduate win Marshall Scholarship

Two Penn students, College senior Christina Steele and 2018 Nursing graduate Erin Hartman, were selected as two of 46 American students that will receive the 2020 Marshall Scholarship, Penn Today reported.

The grant funds three years of study at a college or university in the United Kingdom for up to 50 American postgraduates annually. Since the scholarship's creation in 1953, 17 Penn students and alumni have received the scholarship, Penn Today reported.

At Penn, Hartman was a research assistant at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics for two years, according to Penn Today. She was also a Wharton Public Policy Research Scholar and a University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School International Human Rights Scholar. 

Hartman currently works as a registered nurse in the Emergency Department at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. As a Marshall Scholar, she will pursue a master’s degree in Gender, Peace and Security at the London School of Economics and master of laws degree in International Human Rights Law and Practice at the University of York, according to Penn Today.

Steele plans to study social psychology at the University of Edinburgh, Penn Today reported. At Penn, she studies psychology, religious studies, and Biological Basis of Behavior as a Benjamin Franklin Scholar. She has been involved in research through her involvement in the Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships, the Brannon Laboratory, and the Jenkins Laboratory.

Outside of the classroom, Steele is a CURF research peer advisor, according to Penn Today. She also tutors children at local high schools in neuroscience.

The Marshall Scholarship was established in 1953 to strengthen the ties between the United States and the United Kingdom in the wake of World War II. The name references the Marshall Plan, which was meant to help Europe rebuild its damaged economy after the war.