BOSTON COLLEGE
BOSTON COLLEGE LANDS TWO MARSHALL SCHOLARSHIPS
BC Students Win Two of Only 40 Coveted Awards for Graduate Study in U.K.
CHESTNUT HILL, MA (12-1-08)--Boston College senior Robert J.
Kubala and 2008 graduate Kuong Ly of Woburn are among 40
students to be awarded prestigious George Marshall Scholarships,
which support graduate-level study in the United Kingdom.
American students 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.
Kuong Ly (Photo by Gary Gilbert)
"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."
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 128
undergraduate Fulbright awards, among others.
Robert J. Kubala (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)
"I'm just so thankful for the many opportunities I had here," said Robert J.
Kubala, a native of Austin, Texas. "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 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 County House
of Correction.
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."
A resident of Woburn, Mass., Kuong 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: Ly was born in Vietnam in 1984 to parents who had fled Cambodia's
"killing fields" in the late 1970s. His family migrated from refugee camps throughout Southeast Asia
before they were able to seek political asylum in the United States. The family of seven originally
moved to Lexington, Mass., a culture shock for Ly, then seven, who said he remembers
"arriving in sandals" to a New England winter, being stunned by the cold and amazed by cars and
electricity.
A double major in philosophy and 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 Healthcare for All, a Boston-based organization that works to
create a consumer-centered health care system to provide comprehensive, affordable, high quality
care for everyone, especially the most vulnerable.
Ly will use his Marshall award to study issues of forced migration and refugee care at either Oxford or
the University of Essex.
"This is such a humbling experience," he said. "To be selected by a committee that basically selects
the future leaders of the US, from a pool of such wonderfully talented applicants, it's pretty
indescribable."
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