UA Senior First In Over 40 Years To Receive Marshall Scholarship

TUSCALOOSA, AL. — A University of Alabama senior became the first UA student in more than four decades to receive the prestigious Marshall Scholarship to study abroad in the United Kingdom. Caroline Yuk, a senior from Crystal Lake, Illinois, is reportedly the third UA student to be awarded the scholarship and was one of 46 Americans selected.

The university explained that the scholarship provides aid to American students to study at graduate-level UK institutions in any field of study.

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Yuk is a a neuroscience major who will pursue postgraduate degrees in the same field at the University of Oxford and audiology science at University College London.

“Earning the Marshall Scholarship means the absolute world to me,” Yuk said. “It’s the greatest validation that I’m living in such a way that gives back to all who have helped me along the way, including my parents, siblings, friends and mentors.”

Yuk was born completely deaf, according to the university, but has since gained the ability to hear through cochlear implants and years of auditory-verbal training therapy. She hopes to use her education and research to improve outcomes of those who are deaf or hard of hearing in underserved populations.

“In order to study and find effective solutions for a macroscopic problem such as poorer hearing outcomes in rural areas, it is critical to study at the microscopic level, such as the molecular mechanisms of hearing and balance,” she said. “Auditory neuroscience is inherently multidisciplinary, so I will especially connect with audiologists, clinicians, scientists, biomedical engineers and hearing aid manufacturers in the UK."

Yuk said in doing so, she hopes to contribute to a future team of international and esteemed professionals in the field with an emphasis on increasing hearing access for underserved populations.

After graduating from UA in May, the university says Yuk plans to continue her work through an internship at the Harvard Medical School before traveling to the UK.

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