Berkeleyan
Berkeley student wins prestigious Marshall Scholarship
Daniel Zoughbie is one of 43 awardees nationwide for 2006
| 02 December 2005
 Daniel Zoughbie (Bonnnie Azab Powell photo) |
The scholars, who must demonstrate outstanding academic achievement and a capacity to make a significant contribution to society, may pursue advanced degrees at any academic institution in the United Kingdom. Daniel Zoughbie, a senior majoring in urban studies and minoring in Middle Eastern studies, plans to do graduate work in development studies at Oxford University next fall.
"I am interested in exploring not only how the apparatus of development has been used to exploit and control populations, but also how it can be used to empower individuals to facilitate change on a grassroots level," he says. "In the future, I desire to influence public policy in the Middle East with regard to Israel and Palestine by heading an NGO or working through governmental institutions."
Zoughbie was "overjoyed" when he heard earlier this month about his scholarship, which will cover university fees, living expenses, books, and research while he studies abroad. "It's a tremendous opportunity for which I am extremely grateful."
Ananya Roy, associate dean of academic affairs for International and Area Studies and assistant professor and chair of the Urban Studies Program, wrote a letter recommending Zoughbie for the scholarship. "Daniel is an outstanding student. On the basis of his intellectual and leadership capacities, I would place him in the top one percent of students I have taught here at UC Berkeley," she wrote. "I believe Daniel represents the best traditions of the Berkeley campus: passion for scholarship, commitment to public service, a global sense of self, and social leadership. He is well deserving of this prestigious opportunity."
Zoughbie's accomplishments as a college student include his work in the West Bank. There he established The Micro-Clinic Project in the D'heisheh Refugee Camp and the Bethlehem area to educate people about diabetes and to provide diabetics a convenient place for shared access to frequent testing. The micro-clinics also provide lectures, workshops, and group activities to the community.
"My diabetic grandmother died trying to get from Bethlehem to the hospital; there were no ambulances, and she had developed fatal complications due to poor diabetic education, restrictions on movements, and the stressful political situation," Zoughbie writes in a website about the project. "Diabetes is one of the leading contributors to disability and death in Palestine. I am intent on doing something about this."
Zoughbie says he hopes to broaden the scope of the project "to involve other students and reach other geographical locations," and to use the diabetes micro-clinic model to fight other deadly diseases in underdeveloped countries. He plans to travel to Israel and Palestine during the upcoming winter break to check on the project.
Roy wrote that Zoughbie's micro-clinic work overseas "is a solid example of research in action, of institution-building, of social praxis in difficult contexts. While other undergraduate and graduate students are usually satisfied with rigorous research, Daniel has challenged himself to go further, insisting that his work has to have a public-service mandate."
While overseas last summer, Zoughbie filed 11 well-written, insightful dispatches from the field to Berkeley's online NewsCenter, as part of its annual "Summer Journal" feature. He also wrote a guest commentary about his experiences for the Contra Costa Times newspaper.
Zoughbie also has received the highly competitive Robert and Colleen Haas Scholarship, which provides undergraduates with funding to pursue a research or creative project, and the Donald A. Strauss Scholarship, an award for college juniors at pre-selected, four-year California colleges and universities that pays for a public-service project.
In addition to his academic pursuits, Zoughbie has volunteered for many organizations in the United States and Palestine, plays the violin, and loves to play basketball.
Marshall Scholarships have been awarded every year since 1953 by the United Kingdom as a national gesture of thanks to the United States for aid received under the post-World War II Marshall Plan. Winners may attend any British university and pursue any field of study. More than 1,000 students are nominated to apply for the scholarship each year. Former scholars include Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, electronics entrepreneur Ray Dolby, and New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Thomas Friedman.
The full list of 2006 Marshall Scholars is at www.marshallscholarship.org/winners.html. The Micro-Clinic Project's website is microclinicproject.org. To read Daniel Zoughbie's dispatches from the West Bank last summer to the Berkeley NewsCenter, visit www.berkeley.edu/news/students/2005/palestine/palestine1.shtml.