Two Stanford seniors were among the 37 recipients of 2008 Marshall Scholarships, the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission announced in a Nov. 30 press release.

Sean Arenson ‘08 and Priyanka Narayan ‘08 will join 35 other Americans as Marshall Scholars next fall.

The prestigious award, which is financed by the British government, allows American students the opportunity to study at any institution in the United Kingdom for two years with all expenses paid.

After a rare off-year last year in which no Stanford students were awarded Marshall Scholarships, Arenson and Narayan give Stanford two this year, making the University one of only three nationwide to have multiple recipients of the highly-competitive award.

The United States Naval Academy led the way with three winners, while Yale and Stanford had two each. The other 30 recipients came from a wide array of schools, including Ivy League stalwarts like Harvard, Princeton and Columbia, as well as lesser known schools such as New Mexico State, Virginia Military Institute and the College of William and Mary.

Arenson — who plans to study international health policy and economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science — said he hopes to bridge the gap between European and American health care.

“I think the U.S. has much to learn from the experiences of European health care systems because of their tradition of universal access to care,” he said. “I hope to bring a thorough knowledge and understanding of these systems home with me.”

The economics and biological sciences double major described his reaction to winning the award in an email to The Daily.

“I became quite emotional after hearing the news,” Arenson said. “So many people invested so much in helping me become a competitive applicant, from my professors and mentors who inspired me to pursue the field of health policy, to my friends who helped me prepare for interviews and gave me confidence that I could succeed, and my parents who have always supported me.

“I felt that I was representing all of these people,” he added, “and it was a tremendous feeling to be able to share the excitement of the award with them.”

Arenson credited his professors for providing him with a foundation in health policy and economics and his “thoughtful and creative” peers, who he said helped him develop his analytical skills while at Stanford.

A Sacramento native, Arenson said he does not yet know what he wants to do after his two years in London, but added that he wants to participate in U.S. health care reform.

“My specific plans for the future are not yet well defined,” he said, “but I intend to work in the field of health economics and policy, and I hope that I can in some way contribute to improving the efficiency and equity of the United States health care system.”

Narayan - who will use her scholarship to study chemistry at the University of Cambridge and said she was “pretty shocked and very excited” to win the award - hails from Arcadia, Calif. She is a chemistry major at Stanford, where she has played violin in the Stanford Symphony Orchestra for four years.

In particular, Narayan said in an email to The Daily, she plans to study “protein folding and its role in amyloid diseases” at Cambridge’s chemistry department.

She added that she wants to return to the U.S. after completing her Marshall Scholarship to continue her research.

“I hope to return to the U.S. and continue research here and eventually, if luck goes my way, pursue academic chemistry research at the nexus of physical and biological chemistry,” Narayan said.

The Marshall Scholarships were created in 1953 by the British government as a token of appreciation for the financial assistance provided by the United States under the Marshall Plan following World War II.

Despite not having any Marshall Scholarship winners last year, Stanford has had a large number of recent recipients. The 2008 winners, Arenson and Narayan, follow in the footsteps of the 14 Stanford students who were awarded Marshall Scholarships between 2004 and 2006.