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University of Alabama at Birmingham student Ophelia Johnson has been selected as a finalist for the highly esteemed Marshall Scholarships program.
Marshall Scholarships finance up to 40 young Americans of high ability to study for a graduate degree in any field of study in the United Kingdom. Johnson is UAB’s second Marshall finalist in two years, and is one of only 20 finalists in the Southeastern region this year.
“We are thrilled as an institution to have back-to-back years of Marshall Scholarships finalists,” said Ashley Floyd Kuntz, Ph.D., director of national and international fellowships and scholarships at UAB. “It is a testament to the academic rigor of UAB’s undergraduate programs that our students are able to compete at the highest levels in these prestigious scholarship competitions.”
The program aims to enable intellectually distinguished American students and develop them into leaders, as well as to contribute to the advancement in knowledge, science, technology, the humanities and social sciences, and the creative arts at the U.K.’s centers of academic excellence.
Johnson will interview in November for one of four or five Marshall Scholarships awarded to students from our region. If selected, she will spend a year studying medical device design and entrepreneurship at Imperial College London.
“It is a huge honor to even be nominated by UAB, and such a blessing to be named a finalist,” said Johnson. “This was truly a team effort, and to have the strong support of the UAB community reminds me of why UAB became my home away from home. I’m looking forward to interviewing for the opportunity to study in London as a Marshall Scholar. Making a positive impact in the healthcare field while promoting US-UK relationships would be extremely rewarding.”
Johnson graduated from UAB with an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering, a joint department of the School of Engineering and School of Medicine. She was also a leader of the National Society of Black Engineers and Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honor society.
| This is not Johnson’s first significant honor for her work in research and academics. As an undergraduate student at UAB, she was named to the UNCF/Merck Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program and was honored as a Goldwater Scholarship recipient, a Tau Beta Pi Scholarship recipient and the Engineering Council of Birmingham’s Outstanding Undergraduate Engineering Student of the Year. |
She is currently pursuing a Master of Engineering in Design and Commercialization degree, a multi-disciplinary program in which students earn a graduate certificate in technology commercialization and entrepreneurship from the UAB Collat School of Business, in addition to the master’s degree.
This is not Johnson’s first significant honor for her work in research and academics. As an undergraduate student at UAB, she was named to the UNCF/Merck Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program and was honored as a Goldwater Scholarship recipient, a Tau Beta Pi Scholarship recipient and the Engineering Council of Birmingham’s Outstanding Undergraduate Engineering Student of the Year.
Additional UAB honors include the UAB School of Engineering Undergraduate Research Award, Dean’s Scholar and Outstanding Undergraduate Student for Biomedical Engineering.
“This is a great honor for Ophelia,” said Iwan Alexander, Ph.D., dean of the School of Engineering. “She has been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades throughout her years at UAB, and her accomplishments make us very proud. The Marshall Scholarships program recognizes the best and the brightest, and Ophelia certainly deserves to be among the distinguished group of finalists.”
UAB has twice hosted a statewide Marshall Scholarships reception in conjunction with the U.K. consul general’s office in Atlanta to make students throughout Alabama aware of this scholarship opportunity.