Tarun Chhabra

Several Indian Americans are among the 43 Marshall Scholars for 2005. Though the United Kingdom-based Marshall Scholarship fund for Americans was to be formally announced on Dec. 13, News India-Times has learned that Tarun Chhabra, Bhooma Aravamuthan and Ankur Bahl are among some of the Indian Americans on the list.

The British scholarship selects outstanding American students to continue their studies for two to three years at a British university of their choice. Each scholarship is worth about $60,000 and covers tuition, research, living and travel expenses. Individuals are selected on the basis of high levels of academic and personal achievements.

Bhooma Aravamuthan

Aravamuthan of Kalamazoo, MI, is a senior at Michigan State University (MSU), and will pursue a master of science in neuroscience at the University of Oxford, focusing on the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and other neurological illnesses, according to an MSU release.

“I am so excited to be a Marshall Scholar and represent MSU, my state and country,” she is quoted as saying in the release. “I am so lucky and so fortunate to win this scholarship. When I was interviewing, I let people know that MSU has given me a great education. I am proud of my school and the education I have received here.”

Ankur Bahl

Aravamuthan, daughter of the Raja and Lakshmi Aravamuthan, is currently pursuing studies in biochemistry and physiology at the College of Natural Science, and is an MSU honors college student.

She has been involved in numerous research projects at MSU, and at Actives International and Borgess Health Alliance in Kalamazoo.

Starting this month, she is scheduled to join other researchers on a ship off the Antarctic coast to examine the diving patterns of Weddell seals. Aravamuthan said after her Oxford stint, she plans to get a Ph.D. and study medicine to become a doctor and a

scientist.

In 2004, Aravamuthan got the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, and earlier has been awarded the MSU Alumni Distinguished Scholarship, the Ronald E. McNair Outstanding Natural Science Research Scholar award and the Dallas J. Chapin Natural Science Scholarship.

Chhabra, 24, of Shreveport, LA, lives in New York, and is a graduate of Stanford University. In New York, he is a research officer for the United Nations Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change.

He was earlier based in Moscow State Institute for International Relations as a Fulbright Fellow. There he studied shifting Russian perspectives on U.S. foreign policy. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 2002 from Stanford, with a bachelor’s degree in Slavic languages and literature and international relations, and with university distinction and interdisciplinary honors from Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.

As an undergraduate, he directed the public service fellowships programs of Stanford in Government; worked for the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project; completed internships at the U.S. Department of State and the Center for Strategic and International Studies; and performed with the Stanford Symphony Orchestra.

At Oxford, he will study the evolution of U.S. engagement with the United Nations and pursue a doctorate in international relations, according to a Stanford press release.

Bahl, a double graduate from Northwestern University, IL, son of Manju and Sadharshan Bahl of Santa Clara, CA, is a journalism student and a champion in jumping rope.

He will pursue both talents with the Marshall Scholarship –– study at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies for a master’s degree in migration and diaspora, and get a second master’s in jump rope performance at Goldsmiths College.

Bahl is a member of the 2004 World Champion Jump Rope Team, and his passion for jump rope, which began when he was 10, has taken him to competitions around the world. He wants to make it an Olympic sport.

A man of many talents, Bahl has been learning Indian classical dance since he was six. Currently, he is on a Fulbright Scholarship in France to study Western dance traditions. Bahl says he is interested in developing an Indian and Western dance form that will appeal to the Indian immigrants.

“Ankur was, without question, one of the very brightest students I have ever taught, a kind of Renaissance man,” said Joseph Angotti, director of Medill’s broadcast program. “From the first time I had him in class, there was no doubt whatsoever that he could achieve whatever he wished.”

Bahl says he pursued journalism because he “wanted to become a voice for people like me and my family.” At Northwestern, he produced, wrote, edited and narrated a television documentary about the reactions of Serbian- and Bosnian-Americans living in the same Chicago neighborhood to the trial of Slobodan Milosevic. For the print media, he wrote about the climate of fear faced by immigrants after 9/11 and other issues.

He also plans to create performances about Indian migrants that encourage broader understanding between native-born and immigrant people. He is out to dispel the myth of the Indian American “model minority,” stereotyped as doctors, lawyers or engineers, that obscures the discrimination the community might face.

Bahl says his varied interests are a credit to his parents who encouraged him in all his pursuits. Being the son of Indian immigrants, he says, is key to his identity, according to a Northwestern press release.

At Northwestern, he was the first Asian American elected to be Homecoming King and founder of an Asian American improvisational comedy troupe called WASABI! He also was a member of the Kappa Tau Alpha Journalism Academic Honor Society.

The Marshall Scholarships were established by the British government in 1953 as a gesture of thanks to the people of the United States for the assistance received under the Marshall Plan following World War II.

More than a thousand young Americans have been awarded scholarships since the program’s inception. In addition to intellectual distinction, the awards honor people who are likely to become leaders in their field and to make a contribution to society.