A Zimbabwean, Charity Bhebhe has won one of the world’s most prestigious scholarships, the Gates Cambridge Scholarship. The Arizona ...
A Zimbabwean, Charity Bhebhe has won one of the world’s most prestigious
scholarships, the Gates Cambridge Scholarship.
The Arizona State University senior beat thousands of other
applicants from around the world to win the scholarship. Charity, a molecular
biology and biotechnology major in the School of Life Sciences will pursue a
doctoral degree in pharmacology at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.
“I am very excited, and I am proud of myself,” Bhebhe said.
“I am also very thankful to everyone who helped me with the application —
especially my advisers, professors and my mentor and (principal investigator)
Dr. Heather Bean for all the guidance and support. I wouldn’t have done it
without their help.”
While at Cambridge, scholars pursue the full range of
subjects available and are spread through its departments and colleges. Up to
95 scholars are selected each year, including 40 from the U.S. and 55 from
other countries. Of this year’s almost 5,800 applicants, 423 were shortlisted
by their departments and, of these, 201 were interviewed in the U.S. and
Cambridge by four panels of interviewers drawn from across Cambridge
University.
The lack of basic resources to treat minor illnesses in
Zimbabwe spurred Bhebhe to study the molecular mechanisms of diseases with the
goal of successfully preventing them.
“It has always been my goal to be able to apply my medical
research skills in investigating and preventing diseases to improve health care
standards and give people from disadvantaged communities like my own a fair
chance to fight against disease,” she said. “I intend to use my training in
pharmacology to continue researching molecular and cellular systems involved in
disease progression and, consequently, develop therapies for human disease.”
The Gates Cambridge Scholarship programme was established
in October 2000 by a donation of $210 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation to the University of Cambridge. Scholarships are awarded to
outstanding applicants from countries outside the U.K. to pursue a full-time
postgraduate degree in any subject available at the University of Cambridge.
Scholars are selected on the basis of their outstanding intellectual ability,
leadership potential and commitment to improving the lives of others. ASU NOW
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