KU senior to compete for Churchill Scholarship

LAWRENCE — A University of Kansas student has been nominated for the Winston Churchill Scholarship, which provides for one year of study at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. 

Priyanka Radadiya, a senior from Overland Park, is competing for the award. She is majoring in biochemistry and psychology with minors in business and Spanish. 

KU is the only institution in Kansas on the approved list of colleges and universities in the U.S. that may nominate students for the award. 

Finalists will be selected and interviewed in January, and the scholars will be announced shortly thereafter. 

At KU, the nomination process is coordinated through the Office of Fellowships. The award gives students the opportunity to pursue study in fields in the sciences, engineering or mathematics. The award will lead to a Master of Philosophy or a Master of Advanced Study. 

The program was set up at the request of Churchill, former British prime minister, in order to fulfill his vision of scientific exchange between the United States and the United Kingdom with the goal of advancing science and technology on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Former KU student Larissa Lee won a Churchill Scholarship in 1999. 

Radadiya is the daughter of Manisha Radadiya and Shashank Radadiya of Lenexa and a graduate of Shawnee Mission East High School. She has been involved with research at the Jared Grantham Kidney Institute at KUMC since 2017 as a Scholar in the Kansas Idea Network of Biomedical Excellence (K-INBRE) Program; in 2019 she was selected as a K-INBRE Star Trainee. A member of the University Honors Program and Phi Beta Kappa, she has been involved in a variety of science outreach programs and been a teaching assistant in the Honors Program. Her volunteer experience includes participating in a Global Brigade in Panama and serving at Lawrence Memorial Hospital and Overland Park Regional Medical Center, as well as campus programs such as The Big Event. In 2018 she studied abroad on the faculty-led “London Review” program.