<p>Well, I didn’t get mine, but at least one and potentially two Columbians did…</p>
<p>Columbia Student Receives Marshall Scholarship
By Chloe Smith
Columbia Daily Spectator</p>
<p>Paul Sonne, CC '07, was awarded the Marshall Scholarship Sunday night, marking the first time since 2001 that a Columbia student has received the honor.</p>
<p>Two other Columbia College seniors, Susanna Berger and Arun Chandrasekhar, were both finalists for the award. Chandrasekhar did not receive the scholarship. Berger said Sunday night that she was still awaiting a final decision.</p>
<p>The Marshall, an award funded by the British government and given to American students to pursue graduate studies in the UK, is “thought to be one of the most prestigious scholarships a student could win,” according to Michael Pippenger, associate dean of Fellowship Programs and Study.</p>
<p>“It is quite an accomplishment to be recognized at a national level for this scholarship,” Pippenger said of the finalists. “It reflects well on the University as a whole, and on how they have used the University to become innovators and leaders.”</p>
<p>Sonne, a Russian language and literature major, is also a candidate for the Rhodes scholarship, scheduled to be announced next weekend. He said he will wait to decide on the Marshall until he knows the outcome of the Rhodes competition but added that he was “definitely excited” about the honor.</p>
<p>Sonne is currently the editor-in-chief of the Columbia Political Review. He spent the fall semester of his junior year studying in Moscow and interning at the local bureau of the New York Times. In 2004, he founded the Birch, the first American undergraduate journal of Eastern European and Eurasian studies.</p>
<p>The Marshall Scholarship funds a student’s travel, stipend, and tuition at a British university of his or her choice for two years. During that time, the student can either pursue a master of philosophy degree or do two years in a three-year Ph.D. program. Sonne said he plans to use his scholarship to pursue a masters of philosophy in Eastern European studies at Oxford University.</p>
<p>Finalists for the award were interviewed over the weekend. Because the scholarship is awarded based on a student’s region of origin, Berger, a double major in philosophy and art history, and Chandrasekhar, a double major in math and economics, had to travel back to California. Sonne, a New York native, remained in the area. </p>
<p>“It was far and away the most intense interview I’ve ever been in,” Sonne said, adding that the majority of the interviewers’ questions were about his area of study. “They pretty much grilled me about Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy for half an hour.”</p>
<p>According to Pippenger, only 4 percent of applicants for the award win. “They are not just competing for themselves. People all along the way have helped them to get to this point,” he said.</p>
<p>“It sounds so cliche, but I really learned a lot about myself while doing it,” Sonne said. “It was definitely worth it, although it’s very high-risk, high-reward.”</p>
<p>Berger echoed Sonne’s sentiment. “It was a really good process in that I was able to reflect on my past academic activities,” she said.</p>