UGA student among inaugural class of Gates Cambridge Scholars
WRITER: Sharron Hannon, 706/583-0728, shannon@uga.edu
CONTACT: Jere Morehead, 706/542-6908, morehead@uga.edu
May 11, 2001, 16:51

ATHENS, Ga. — Semil Choksi, a graduating senior majoring in genetics at the University of Georgia, has been notified that he is among the inaugural recipients of the new Gates Cambridge Scholarship. Choksi is the son of Ranna and Prahlad Choksi of Suwanee, Ga.

Funded by a $210 million endowment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the merit-based scholarships — similar to the University of Oxford’s Rhodes Scholarships — cover one to three years of study at the University of Cambridge in England. Choksi’s award is for three years starting in the fall of 2001. He plans to earn a doctorate in molecular genetics.

“I am very pleased that a student from UGA is in this first class of recipients of this prestigious scholarship,” said UGA President Michael F. Adams. “I believe this is further evidence of the extraordinary quality of young people who choose to study here.”

The Gates Cambridge Scholarships are open to students from any country except Britain and it was expected that half of the initial class would come from the United States.

“We are hoping that the young people we select will be motivated to use their education to put something back into society for the benefit of the much wider community,” Gates said in a written statement when the establishment of the scholarships was announced last fall.

Choksi is a graduate of Meadowcreek High School in Suwanee and received a Foundation Fellowship to study at the University of Georgia, where he is also in the Honors Program. The Foundation Fellowship provides an enhanced educational experience for academically outstanding undergraduate students.

“Semil’s selection as a Gates Cambridge Scholar brings great distinction to the university, the Honors Program, the Foundation Fellows Program and the genetics department,” said Jere
Morehead, associate provost and director of the Honors and Foundation Fellows programs at UGA. “He is an outstanding young man and we are very proud of him.”

While at UGA, Choksi was involved in research on how fruit flies process hormones. He gave presentations at the annual symposium sponsored by UGA’s Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities and at a national conference. That experience proved useful during the interview for the Gates Cambridge Scholarship.

“The panel fired questions at me and focused a lot on the research I had done and want to do,” said Choksi.

He also got a few questions on another interest of his — ballroom dance — which was sparked by an introductory class at UGA and led to auditioning for and joining the Ballroom Performance Group.

After going through Saturday’s graduation ceremony, Choksi will travel in Western Europe during the month of June, then go on to Curacao to study salsa dancing.

Choksi learned that he had received the Gates Cambridge Scholarship via a phone call from his mother just as he finished two final exams. “She started reading the letter from the director of the trust, but didn’t have her glasses on,” he recalled. “She read ‘The panel was not impressed by the interview’ and I thought ‘This is the meanest rejection letter ever.’ Then I asked her to read it again and she said ‘Oh, it says the panel was most impressed.’”

Choksi thinks his UGA background was an asset in the selection process. “At the interviews I saw all these students from Stanford and Harvard and MIT,” he said. “But I think there’s something about being from a good state school in the South. The uniqueness is a helpful factor. Plus, I think I’ve gotten the best education possible here.”

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NOTE TO EDITOR: Semil Choski’s phone number is available upon request.