UC alumna named a 2026 Marshall Scholar

The British Government has announced the 43 American students who will receive Marshall Scholarships for 2026, which includes UC alumna Taylor Allgood.

The scholarships are awarded to academically exceptional American students who’ve recently earned an undergraduate degree from a four-year college in the United States and maintained at least a 3.7 grade point average. The evaluation criteria are grouped into three categories: academic merit (can the candidate excel as a scholar), leadership potential (will the person be able to deliver results) and ambassadorial potential (can the individual contribute to improved U.K.-U.S. understanding).

New recipients will begin their graduate studies at leading universities in the United Kingdom next September.

Allgood intends to pursue two graduate degrees: one in anthropology of food at SOAS University of London and one in international planning and development at Cardiff University. Her longer-term goal is to complete a PhD in anthropology.

Created by the British government by an Act of Parliament to honor George C. Marshall, General of the Army, Secretary of State, and architect of the post-World War II Economic Recovery Program, commonly known as the Marshall Plan, Marshall Scholarships were first granted in 1953. 

Allgood is only the second UC graduate ever to receive the award and the first since Donna Kurtz, a 1965 graduate of UC’s Classics Department, who is today a senior research fellow at Oxford.

An Ashtabula, Ohio, native and University Honors student, Allgood graduated from UC in 2023 with dual degrees in international affairs and political science before completing her Master of Public Administration at UC in 2024. She was at work running American University’s campus food pantry in Washington, D.C., when the call came about this award.

“I saw a Virginia number, and I don’t usually answer spam calls, but something told me to pick it up,” Allgood said. “When they told me I had been selected, I was standing in the very place that continues the work I do in food justice. It felt incredibly fitting.”

Read more about Allgood's path to the Marshall Scholarship. 

Read the Forbes article.

Featured image: Taylor Allgood. Photo credit/Andrew Higley.