Duke Graduate Awarded Marshall Scholarship
Andy Cunningham co-founded WISER, the first all-girls boarding school and community center set to open early next year in Muhuru Bay, Kenya.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
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DURHAM, N.C. -- Andrew “Andy” Cunningham, a 2008 summa cum laude graduate of Duke University who has been active in public service around the world, will receive the prestigious Marshall Scholarship, the scholarship program announced this week.
Established in 1953 to commemorate the Marshall Plan, the scholarships are awarded each year to 40 or more “talented, independent and wide-ranging” young Americans to finance two years of graduate level studies at a college or university in the United Kingdom.
“The impact Andy Cunningham has had at Duke through his work with the WISER program and beyond is immeasurable. He has proven himself to be a passionate public servant and a scholar who is dedicated to making a difference in this world,” said Duke President Richard H. Brodhead. “Duke is honored to count Andy as an alumnus and we are excited to witness the fruits of his potential.”
Cunningham, 23, said he plans to pursue a graduate degree in international and comparative education at Oxford University in England. After Oxford, he said he would like to lead organizations based in the U.S. and abroad that can help plan, implement and monitor innovative strategies for improving teacher training, curricula and community participation in education development, especially for girls.
“With my degree from Oxford, I will also be prepared for a career at UNICEF, where I wish to one day become the director of education programs for East Africa or East Asia,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham graduated from Duke in May 2008 with a double major in international comparative studies and Asian African languages and literature, with a concentration in Chinese. The Marshall Scholarship is the latest in a series of honors in recognition of Cunningham’s academic and public service accomplishments.
In 2007, Cunningham was one of 65 students from 56 U.S. colleges and universities awarded the Truman Scholarship by the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation.
The Rutland, Vt., native also received a 2004 Robertson Scholarship that fully funded his Duke tuition and the Goldman Sachs 2006 Global Leadership award.
Passionate about children’s rights and education, Cunningham co-founded WISER (http://www.wisergirls.org), the first all-girls boarding school and community center set to open early next year in Muhuru Bay, Kenya.
“Living and working in a rural Kenyan fishing village has provided me with the unique opportunity to take my passion and what I have learned in the classroom and translate it to the real world,” said Cunningham, who while in Kenya has overseen the construction of the WISER seven-acre campus for girls. He also has founded the WISER Young Social Entrepreneurs program to provide income-generating opportunities for unemployed youth, and supervised an educational enrichment program for 450 primary school students utilizing a pay-for-performance model.
Cunningham also led a fund-raising campaign in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that raised $125,000 for students and their families in New Orleans. In addition, he has worked with physically and mentally handicapped children in Jamaica and volunteered to teach street children in Calcutta, India, with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity.
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For more information about the Marshall Scholarship program, visit http://www.marshallscholarship.org/.
