The scholarship, established by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, gives Fang the opportunity to attend graduate school at England's University of Cambridge.
Thanks to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Zhao Fang '09 will spend next year experiencing the academic and aesthetic wonders of one of England's most distinguished universities.
Fang is the recipient of the Foundation's Gates Cambridge Scholarship. Established in 2000, the program allows outstanding national and international students who live outside the United Kingdom to pursue graduate studies at the University of Cambridge. To date, 827 scholarships have been awarded to students from 85 different countries. The scholarship covers the full cost of studying at Cambridge.
This won't be Fang's first visit to the U.K. He studied at Oxford University during his junior year, and last summer led a group of 50 Oxford and Cambridge students in developing a summer camp for Chinese high school students.
At Cambridge, Fang will be exploring early modern Chinese history, with a focus on the first Sino-Franco War (1883-1885). Eventually, he says,“I would like to go to law school to study legal reforms in the People's Republic of China.” He also wants to work for or establish an organization to promote political and legal conversations and reform initiatives both within China and throughout the world.
A double major in chemistry and history, Fang has participated in several research projects and internships at Haverford. During the summer of his freshman year he worked with Professor of Chemistry Rob Scarrow on a project involving inorganic synthetics. The following summer he interned with Erik Muther '94 at the Pennsylvania Health Care Quality Alliance. Last winter, he received funding from the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship to conduct archival research in China for his senior thesis about the development of Hanyeping Iron and Coal Company, an early modern industrial enterprise.
Fang encourages his fellow Fords to be aggressive in pursuing prestigious scholarships like the Gates Cambridge.“Applying for scholarships is a rare chance for one to examine his or her academic works and future aspirations,” he says. “I feel I benefited a lot from the process itself.”
