SCHOLARSHIP Senior First GU Student Awarded Gates Cambridge Scholarship By Kristen Wayne Hoya Staff Writer

Georgetown senior Kateri DuBay (COL ’02) recently became the first Georgetown student to receive a Gates Cambridge Scholars fellowship at the University of Cambridge. DuBay was one of 149 students from around the world to receive the year-long post-graduate fellowship.

DuBay will graduate from Georgetown in May as a biochemistry major and a theology minor. At Cambridge, she plans to study either computer science or chemistry. Following the one-year fellowship program, DuBay said she hopes to begin earning her doctoral degree in chemistry in the fall of 2003.

During her time at Georgetown, DuBay has participated in a wide variety of campus activities. She is currently a member of the concert choir, the provost search committee, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and the John Carroll Scholars Program. She also studied malaria as a research assistant working for chemistry professor Paul Roepe.

In addition, DuBay is a Goldwater Scholar and a National Merit Scholar and will soon become a member of Sigma Xi and Phi Beta Kappa.

DuBay is from Cary, N.C., where she attended Apex High School.

“I feel honored and excited to have the chance to study in a setting that combines so much history and promise,” DuBay said in a press release about her impending year abroad at Cambridge. “I’m looking forward to the expanded perspective that seeing how university science is done elsewhere will bring.”

Georgetown College Dean Jean McAuliffe said in the press release, “this is a wonderful honor for one of our most outstanding student scholars. McAuliffe said she was “proud of DuBay’s achievements. “She represents the quest for academic success that Georgetown seeks to give all its students,” McAuliffe said.

DuBay said she plans to make the most of the experience. “It’s a different path than going straight to graduate school, so I hope it turns out to be a meaning full experience.” This will be DuBay’s first experience abroad.

The Gates Cambridge Scholars Program was established in October 2001 by the Bill and Melinda GatesFoundation. Its purpose is to create educational opportunities for university students interested in serving their communities and ameliorating international problems having to do with social equity, health, learning and technology. Students from all countries in the world except the United Kingdom are eligible and as many as 225 graduate scholarships are available at one time.

The Gates Cambridge Scholarship provides funds for tuition, travel and a student allowance.