Topics: College of Fine Arts, Honors College, Scholarships
November 11, 2014
Senior Colin Hart is a finalist for a Marshall Scholarship.
Ball State University senior Colin Hart is a finalist for a Marshall Scholarship. Together, the Marshall and Rhodes Scholarships are considered the two most prestigious, competitive scholarships in the nation.
Hart is from Bloomington and an Honors College student majoring in theatrical studies with a focus on sustainability in the arts. His unique area of interest and his impressive record of leadership and academic achievement led him to receive a Udall Scholarship in April. His accomplishments include his work with "Down to Earth," a Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry documentary about sustainable farming, and his involvement with the eco-friendly play "Still Life With Iris," for which he created stage props from objects found in local Dumpsters.
If awarded the Marshall Scholarship, he intends to enter the master of letters program in dramaturgy and playwriting at the University of Glasgow, one of the oldest universities in the world.
The Marshall funds one or two years of graduate study in the United Kingdom and is for “applicants who possess keen intellects and broad outlooks, who will be future leaders, opinion-formers, and decision-makers in our own country.”
On Nov. 13, Hart will be interviewed in Chicago, as one of 26 finalists in the 13-state region. Up to 40 Marshall Scholars nationwide will be named at the end of the month.
The scholarship program was founded by the U.K. Parliament in 1953 and is overseen by the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission. It is intended to honor the ideals of the Marshall Plan and “express the continuing gratitude of the British people to their American counterparts.”
Nationwide, only 230 colleges and universities have ever had a Marshall Scholar. Hart is Ball State's first Marshall finalist since 2004.