St Edmund’s College is delighted to welcome Juliet McGowen, who is our first Ebenezer Ademisoye MPhil Scholar.

Alumnus Ebenezer Ademisoye (MPhil, Technology Policy, 2005) generously funded this new award to support a high-achieving black student to study an MPhil at St Edmund’s. Ebenezer really wanted to be able to help someone to come to Cambridge who might otherwise not be able to do so, and to help them to experience the full life that the University has to offer.

Juliet McGowen graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with an AB in Molecular Biology. For her undergraduate thesis, she researched how a genetic mutation in the RRAS2 gene perturbs signalling pathways within the body and contributes to developmental disorders collectively known as RASopathies. Outside of her research, she spent time tutoring and advising high school students from underserved communities through the organisations Legal Outreach and Matriculate, as well as interning at the KIHEFO Clinics in Uganda.

As an Ebenezer Ademisoye scholar, Juliet will pursue an MPhil in Genomic Medicine. The support she has received from this scholarship has urged her more than ever to utilise her education to address racial and ethnic disparities in both clinical research and healthcare.

After her time in the UK, Juliet plans to return to the United States for her MD and pursue a career linking her interest in genomic research and health equity.

Ebenezer reflected on his motivation to establish the new award by saying, “I am grateful to have been supported by my mentor Mr Owen when I attended Cambridge all those years ago. He supported me with words of wisdom, prayer, as well as financial support. While his wise advice and prayerful character stayed with me even to this day, it was his financial support that was immediately necessary to allow me to maximise my time at Cambridge. To honour his legacy, I continue the work he started by elevating young people with life-changing opportunities through mentoring and work experience programmes for the last 15 years. I also honour his example by providing financial support, through this scholarship, to outstanding students from the community he spent 30 years supporting.

Mr Owen never let me pay him back even after I became established in my career. He felt he had been freely given to, so freely he gave to me. It is my hope that this scholarship will accelerate positive outcomes in the lives of those who receive it and to the communities they seek to help. May they also freely give to outstanding students in the future in the same manner that this has been freely given to them.”

Applications are now open for next year’s award. You can find out more information about how to apply here: https://applying.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/student-finance/