Ulbricht ’15 earns prestigious Marshall Scholarship

[[id=”1499704″ width=”600″ float=”left” caption=”Bailey Ulbricht ’15″]]Bailey Ulbricht ’15 (Severna Park, Md.) has been named a Marshall Scholarship winner.

Founded by a 1953 Act of the British Parliament and named in honor of former United States Secretary of State George C. Marshall, the scholarships commemorate the humane ideals of the Marshall Plan and express the continuing gratitude of the British people to their American counterparts. The awards fully fund graduate study at a UK institution for up to 40 young Americans in any field of study. Marshall Scholarships are mainly funded by Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office and are overseen by the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission.

“I am incredibly honored to have this opportunity, and I’m so grateful to the faculty, staff and friends at Carleton for their support,” Ulbricht said. She plans to attend SOAS University of London (School of Oriental and African Studies), the only higher education institution in Europe focusing on the study of Asia, Africa, and the Near and Middle East. After graduating, she plans to serve as a political advisor specializing on U.S. policy in the Middle East, focusing on bolstering democratic institutions. 

Ulbricht, an international relations major at Carleton, is the founder and president of Paper Airplanes. The organization[[id=”1268244″ width=”400″ float=”right” caption=”Ulbricht’s “Paper Airplanes” Project”]] links Syrian refuges with Carleton students in an effort to teach them English-speaking skills, with the ultimate goal of “supporting Syrian youth efforts to continue higher education and future fulfillment.” (Voice: A Kind Word) The endeavor was mentioned by Samantha Power, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, in a February 2016 speech, hastening its growth from a Carleton-focused project to one that now includes 250 tutors from more than 100 colleges and universities across the United States.

Ulbricht received a Davis Projects for Peace grant from the Davis United World Scholars program in 2015 in support of “Combating War with Education: Expanding Educational Opportunities for Syrian Youth.” The project centered on facilitating peace in an area that has been in constant struggle with violence and war. With the grant, Ulbricht provided Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) instruction and built a computer lab for college-aged Syrian refugee students in Reyhanli, Turkey. The program’s goals included expanding educational opportunities for Syrian students and providing alternatives to joining violent factions. Ulbricht collaborated with the Reyhanli Center, which is currently the only free test-prep center in southern Turkey.

[[id=”1099891″ width=”500″ float=”right” caption=”Ulbricht on the soccer pitch]] During her time at Carleton, Ulbricht participated in a political science study-abroad program in Europe and also traveled to Israel/Palestine and the Turkish-Syrian border. She was a member of the Model UN team and a two-time all-conference player on the Carleton varsity women’s soccer team. She spent the last year in Turkey on a Fulbright grant.

Ulbricht is one of only two Minnesota recipients this year. She is Carleton’s first Marshall recipient since Shizuka Hsieh ’93 in 1993.