Four students with Georgia ties have received the distinguished Marshall Scholarship.

The scholarships offer talented young Americans the chance to study any academic subject at universities in the United Kingdom of their choice for up to 3 years.

Four students with Georgia ties have been named Marshall Scholarship recipients. Clockwise from top left hand corner they are Assata Davis, George Anthony Pratt, Lauren Wilkes and Natalie Moss. Photo Credit: Marshall Scholarship and the University of Georgia via Photo Joiner.

Credit: Contributed

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Credit: Contributed

The recipients with Georgia ties are:

  • Rutgers University student Assata Davis, who is from Roswell, and is majoring in strategic communications.
  • University of Georgia student Natalie Moss, who is majoring in human osteology and funerary archaeology.
  • Morehouse College theology student George Anthony Pratt.
  • University of Georgia student Lauren Wilkes, who studies machine learning and has been interning with groups at MIT.

Named after former U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall, the Marshall Scholarship Program began in 1953 as a gesture of gratitude to the United States for the assistance that the United Kingdom received after World War II under the Marshall Plan. Since that time, the British government has provided scholarships for over 2,200 Americans.

University of Georgia leaders said this is the first time the school had two scholars in the same year.

“Having Natalie and Lauren named as Marshall Scholars in the same year is just an incredible accomplishment, both for them and for the University of Georgia,” Meg Amstutz, dean of the Morehead Honors College, said in a statement. “We are grateful to the faculty and staff who have supported them, and we are proud of the way they have advanced research in their fields.”

Prior Marshall Scholarship recipients include former U.S. Supreme Court associate justice Stephen Breyer and current justice Neil Gorsuch, CIA director William Burns, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and NASA astronaut Anne McClain.