Khalilah Ieishah Clelland, FCLC ’00, has been awarded the prestigious British Marshall Scholarship. This marks the first time a Fordham College at Lincoln Center undergraduate has received the prestigious award in the College’s 31-year history. Clelland is in good company. Fordham tied with Princeton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University in the number of Marshall awards received.
Clelland was chosen from 24 finalists in the Northeast and plans to study post-colonial literature of Africa and the Caribbean at a university in England. An English major and anthropology minor with a 3.77 G.P.A., Clelland has danced with the Alvin Ailey Scholarship Company, interned at the United Nations, served as editor-in-chief of Fordham’s student literary magazine, Excursions, and received Fordham’s Robert Nettleson/Ully Hirsh Poetry Award. In the last five years, 60 Fordham undergraduates have received prestigious awards under the tutelage of faculty mentors and the director of prestigious fellowships.
Clelland’s mentor in completing the application and preparing for the interview process was Michael Suarez, S.J., associate professor of English. The scholarship is financed by the British government and funds two years of advanced study at British universities. It was established in 1953 as a gesture of thanks to the people of the United States for the assistance received after World War II under the Marshall Plan.
