Tayler Ulmer, a Spelman College senior has been selected to receive a prestigious Marshall Scholarship from the United Kingdom’s government enabling her to pursue in the U.K. a one-year master’s degree in social anthropology of development.
Ms. Ulmer is to graduate in the spring with a double major in anthropology/sociology and international studies.
“Tayler has a bright future ahead of her as she pursues her studies in London and I look forward to seeing how she uses her social and mentor skills to help vulnerable populations around the world,” said Jeremy Pilmore-Bedford, the British consul general based in Atlanta, in a news release.
The British government created the Marshall Scholarships, named in honor of U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall, to thank the American people for the assistance given to Europe in the aftermath of World War II through the European Recovery Program, commonly known as the Marshall Plan.
Up to 40 scholars are selected each year to study at post-graduate level at any British university, in any field of study. According to the release from the British consulate general, Ms. Ulmer’s first choice is the School for Oriental and African Studies in London, but her enrollment there still is to be confirmed.
Ms. Ulmer is the fifth Spelman student to receive a Marshall Scholarship since the program’s inception in 1954.
Last year she was one of 59 college juniors in the United States to receive a Truman Scholarship granted by the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation to support the graduate education and professional development of outstanding young people committed to public service leadership.
Among many extracurricular activities, she is a charter member of Girls Going Global and founded My Brothers Keeper, a mentorship program to expose young black males to college studies. In her student profile on Spelman’s website, she credits her volunteer work as an art instructor at the KIPP STRIVE Academy‘s middle school in Atlanta, for inspiring her founding of My Brothers Keeper.
One of her KIPP STRIVE projects asked students to draw a picture that represented college. She was astounded, she is quoted to say in the Spelman profile, when many of the boys were unable to produce any work at all.
“After inquiring, I realized that many of these students lacked mentors and positive male role models.I recognized a disconnect between the young male students and their understanding of college,” she says. Her experience at KIPP STRIVE led her “to confront the choice of being a just person or being just a person.”
She also is a contributor to the blog Black Girl Without Borders.
Jeffrey Rosensweig, director of the Global Perspectives Program at the Goizueta Business School of Emory University, serves as the chairman of the Southeast for the Marshall Scholarship Selection Committee.
Aside from a doctorate of philosophy, Dr. Rosensweig received a master’s degree in philosophy, politics and economics as a result of two years of study at Oxford University as a Marshall scholar.
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