December 7, 2000

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Contact: Barbara Schowen, KU honors program, (785) 864-4225, or Mary Jane Dunlap, University Relations, (785) 864-8853.

KU McPherson senior wins Marshall Scholarship

LAWRENCE -- A University of Kansas senior from McPherson, Scott Allan Ferree, has won a Marshall scholarship to study in Great Britain. Marshall scholarships provide about $50,000 a year for up to two years of graduate study.

The British Embassy in Washington, D.C., announced the 40 Marshall scholars for academic years 2000 to 2002. The British government founded the Marshall scholarships in 1953 to express gratitude for the Marshall Plan.

Ferree is one of eight KU students named Marshall scholars since 1953.

An English and French major at KU, Ferree plans to study modernist writers and wants to be a writer. He is the son of Dr. Richard and Sue Ferree, 1500 N. Walnut St., McPherson, and a McPherson High School graduate.

KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway said: "We are proud of Scott's achievement in being named a Marshall scholar. This prestigious scholarship is a tribute to Scott's commitment to scholarship and excellence. He is a shining example of the many outstanding students at KU."

This past spring, Ferree was one of eight playwrights selected nationally at the 2000 American College Theatre Festival to have a play performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The 10-minute play, "The Pterodactyls," received a regional first-place in the January 2000 festival and was performed at the Kennedy Center in April.

Interested in theatre since age 7 when he was asked to perform in "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever," Ferree has acted in productions at McPherson College and the Music Theatre of Wichita. At KU, he has performed in the University Theatre and English Alternative Theatre, which produces original plays. He participated in the 1997 Inge Festival at Independence, Kan., and a summer study abroad program in theatre at Katohi, Greece.

Ferree likes to backpack and rock climb. He has completed a one-month course at the National Outdoor Leadership School in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming.

Marshall scholarships can be used at any British university. Ferree plans to use the Marshall scholarship to study at the University of London, Goldsmiths College. He plans to study Irish writer Samuel Beckett as his work relates to Marcel Proust and James Joyce and to connect these three writers to others of the modernist period.

In his application for the Marshall, Ferree wrote that several of the faculty members of the English studies program at Goldsmiths College are committed to the study of modernist writers and one in particular, Derval Tubridy, in the work of Samuel Beckett.

Ferree noted that the Marshall scholarship offers him "the unique opportunity to study Beckett's works in the city where many of his theatrical works were first produced in the English language."

Marshall scholarships have no specific age restrictions and are for recent graduates who demonstrate academic excellence and leadership qualities. The scholarships aim to provide America's future leaders and opinion formers with the opportunity to study in Britain, to enable outstanding students to gain an understanding of British social and academic values, and to establish professional and personal ties offering reciprocal benefits to Britain and the United States