Dartmouth senior wins Keasbey Scholarship to study at Oxford University

Dartmouth College Office of Public Affairs • Press Release
Posted 06/11/09 • Media Contact: Latarsha Gatlin (603) 646-3661

Matthew S. Alkaitis of the Dartmouth Class of 2009 has received a prestigious Keasbey Scholarship, which he plans to use to study at Oxford University after he graduates from Dartmouth on June 14.

Awarded by the Henry Griffith Keasbey and Anna Griffith Keasbey Memorial Foundation, the scholarship is designed to promote Anglo-American relations and provide American students with an opportunity to experience the British educational system. The scholarship supports two years of study at one of four British universities: Oxford University, Cambridge University, the University of Edinburgh or University College of Wales at Aberystwyth.

Keasbey Scholarships are available on a rotating basis to students from only 12 top colleges and universities in the United States: Amherst, Bowdoin, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Haverford, Middlebury, Princeton, Swarthmore, Wesleyan and Yale.

“I am excited and honored to have won the Keasbey scholarship,” said Alkaitis. “I’ll use the scholarship to read for the MSc by research with the Nuffield Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences. My research will focus on the neurological complications of severe malaria infection. I expect my studies to help me understand how I can eventually use my career to address important issues in global health.”

A biology major from Arnold, Md. with a focus in human biology, Alkaitis conducted his undergraduate research with the DeLeo chronic pain laboratory at Dartmouth Medical School. He is a Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society early inductee, a Rufus Choate Scholar (for students ranked in the top 5 percent of their class at Dartmouth), a Dartmouth Presidential Scholar, a fellow with the Rockefeller Leadership Fellows Program and has worked with the non-profit group MEDLIFE to organize medical brigades to Ecuador and Peru.
The Keasbey scholarship consists of a payment to the British institution to cover tuition and other fixed charges, a cost of living stipend for the scholar to cover board, lodging and general subsistence, and an allowance for travel between the U.S. and Great Britain.

The criteria for selection as a scholar include academic excellence, active participation in extracurricular activities, leadership abilities and academic prowess.