Release date: Nov. 22, 2004

Emory Student Awarded Marshall Scholarship for Study in U.K.

Emory University senior Joanna Dee "Didi" Kuo has been awarded a 2005 Marshall Scholarship for graduate study in the United Kingdom. She is the second consecutive Emory student to have been selected, following Nicholas Llewellyn last year.

"I'm surprised and thrilled to have been selected as a Marshall Scholar," says Kuo. "I truly never expected to be chosen. Emory has been a very nurturing place in terms of my intellectual development, and everything in my background here has prepared me for this scholarship. I don't think I could have done this had I been somewhere else."

Kuo, who is majoring in political science and history with a minor in Latin, plans to use her scholarship to pursue master's and doctoral degrees in comparative politics from the University of Essex. She plans eventually to get a law degree to advance her interests in maximizing political participation and representation.

While at Essex Kuo plans to compare British and European Union democracies with that of the United States. She is particularly excited at the prospect of being involved in the Institute for Electoral Affairs at Essex--the British election monitoring program--following national elections in Great Britain.

Such an academic path is a natural one for Kuo, a politically active student leader. While earning a near-perfect grade point average, she has devoted significant time and effort to issues dear to her, including competing in intercollegiate policy debate; volunteering with the Atlanta Urban Debate League; serving as vice president of Young Democrats; serving as president of Emory Choices, a pro-choice advocacy group; tutoring in the university's writing center; and chairing Emory's Honor Council, a seven-member judicial body responsible for enforcing the undergraduate college honor code.

"While her interests are broad, Didi is not a dilettante," says political science professor Micheal Giles. "She has worked in depth in each of her academic areas of interest and has tried to integrate them." He cites her deep involvement with the Young Democrats, but especially with the Atlanta Urban Debate League, where she is assisting in the creation of a curriculum for an after-school program with the Atlanta Housing Authority/Boys & Girls Clubs and developing funding strategies for the program. "It is the rare student who is called upon and able to do such tasks. Her selection is indicative of the trust placed in her organizational skills."

It was Melissa Wade, director of debate at Emory, who tapped Kuo's intellectual and organizational skills to work with the Boys & Girls Club program as well as research federal funding opportunities for the dozens of urban debate leagues (UDLs) that have grown around the country in the last decade based on the Atlanta model.

"Didi has thrived as a minority in the highly competitive world of national tournament debate and understands the importance of being a role model for women and other minority populations," says Wade, who has known Kuo for eight years through competitive debate. "She does not compartmentalize her life; she delights in weaving the elements of her life into as consistent a whole as she can--a tapestry."

Kuo is an award-winning, nationally ranked debater with the Barkley Forum, Emory's debate program. In addition to her work with the UDL after-school program, she has been active as a coach and judge for middle school and high school tournaments in the UDL, and has served on the faculty of national debate institutes at Emory, Stanford and American University School of Law.

"My involvement in competitive policy debate first challenged me to articulate the impacts of inequality and to investigate tools for change. Debate served as a springboard for my campus activism," says Kuo.

Most who know Kuo, sing her praises. "She is one of the three or four most impressive students I have met in my 15-year career at Emory, combining intellectual brilliance with a highly developed sense of civil responsibility," says Patrick Allitt, professor of history and one of Kuo's nominators.

Robert Paul, dean of Emory College, puts Kuo "right at the front of her student generation" as an intellectually curious student, a skilled writer and thoughtful analyst of ideas.

Kuo's academic achievement has earned her a place in the Emory Scholars Program as a Dean's Achievement Scholar (four-year merit award), Alben W. Barkley Scholar (four-year debate merit award) and Thomas J. Watson Memorial Scholar (four-year merit award from IBM Corp.). She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa national honor society as a junior and is a member of the academic honor societies Eta Sigma Phi (classics), Pi Sigma Alpha (political science), Phi Alpha Theta (history) and Omicron Delta Kappa (scholarship and service). She is in the midst of completing an honors thesis in political science that examines the influence that congressional staffers wield in determining the policy preferences of members.

Her extracurricular activities include serving as editor for the Asian-American Youth Alliance, overseeing the organization's newsletter and grant proposals. Having grown up in a Chinese-speaking household, Kuo is fluent in Mandarin and teaches it to children adopted from China by American families. She worked as an intern for U.S. Congressman Marty Meehan (D-Mass.), attending hearings and writing press releases for the staff.

Kuo is the daughter of Josephine and Chung Kuo, residents of Alpharetta. She is a graduate of Milton High School in Alpharetta.

The British Parliament instituted the Marshall Scholarship program in 1953, named in honor of Gen. George C. Marshall, as a thank you to the American people for the assistance given to Europe in the aftermath of World War II .

The program quickly established itself as the most prestigious scholarship for young Americans wishing to do graduate study for two or three years at universities throughout the United Kingdom. Marshall Scholarship alumni occupy senior and interesting positions in all walks of American life. Alumni have included a Supreme Court Justice; members of the Cabinet and Congress; Pulitzer Prize-winners; leaders in journalism, academia, business, entertainment, the military, science, engineering and law. There are currently three Marshall Scholar alumni on the Emory faculty and one at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the British Consulate-General in Atlanta

At least 40 scholars are selected each year to study either at the graduate or occasionally undergraduate level at any U.K. institution in any field of study. Each scholarship is held for two years. The selection process in the U.S. is managed by the British Council, on behalf of the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., and the regional Consulates-General in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.

Scholarships provide university fees, cost of living expenses, annual book grant, thesis grant, research and daily travel grants, fares to and from the United States and, where applicable, a contribution towards the support of a dependent spouse.

For more on the Marshall Scholarship, go to www.marshallscholarship.org.

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For nearly two decades Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system.

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