Two Navy Rugby Grads Earn Prestigious Scholarships
Two Navy Rugby Grads Earn Prestigious Scholarships
Two seniors from Navy Women's Rugby have been awarded prestigious scholarships to pursue graduate studies overseas.
Abigail (AJ) Ward has received a Rhodes Scholarship, while Charlotte d'Halluin has received a Marshall Scholarship.
Ward was among the list of 32 students nationwide awarded a Rhodes Scholarship for postgraduate study at Oxford University. She is the 56th midshipman to earn the honor and follows on the heels of recent Navy rugby grad Sarah Skinner, who received the Rhodes in 2022 and is pursuing a Master's in International Relations at Oxford.
A computer science major with a Chinese minor, Ward owns a 3.99 cumulative grade-point average and is ranked 28th in Academic Order of Merit amongst the Naval Academy Class of 2024. Additionally, she has garnered academic honors from the Naval Academy in five semesters. She is also, of course, a standout player for the Navy rugby team and athletic achievement is a key component of the Rhodes Scholarship.
A native of Pasadena, Md., Ward was also a recipient of the Stamps Scholarship that allowed her to work with the Asia Foundation Malaysia this past summer to study the impact of technology policy on small and micro entrepreneurs. She also spent the 2023 spring semester in an intensive Mandarin program in Taipei, Taiwan, at National Taiwan University.
Ward plans to pursue a master’s degree in social science of the internet as well as a master’s degree in public policy.
Rugby captain d’Halluin received the Marshall Scholarship, which provides up to two years of postgraduate study at a United Kingdom university. She is the 35th midshipman to earn the highly-competitive academic honor.
A mechanical engineering major, d’Halluin owns a 3.96 cumulative grade-point average through the 2023 spring semester. She is ranked 37th in Overall Order of Merit amongst the Naval Academy Class of 2024 and has garnered academic honors from the Naval Academy in six semesters.
The Jersey City, N.J., native also serves as the operations officer for the Naval Academy Science and Engineering Conference. Additionally, she is the commanding officer for the Formula SAE Capstone, which works to build the U.S. Navy Racing Team’s first electric vehicle from scratch.
Upon graduation this May, d’Halluin will commission as an officer in the United States Navy with a service selection assignment of submariner, duties she will assume after she completes her studies in the United Kingdom. The Navy rugby captain intends to pursue a Master of Science degree from the University of Edinburgh in energy, society, and sustainability, as well as a Master of Research in urban sustainability and resilience at University College London. Her proposed research is to investigate ways to reduce carbon emissions on Department of Defense facilities across the globe.
Marshall Scholarships were founded by an Act of Parliament in 1953 to commemorate the humane ideals of the European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan). The goals of the program include enabling future leaders of America the opportunity to study in the United Kingdom, helping scholars gain an understanding and appreciation of contemporary Britain, contributing to the advancement of knowledge at Britain’s centers of academic excellence and motivating scholars to act as ambassadors throughout their lives, thus strengthening British-American understanding.
