December 2, 2004

Medill grad named Marshall Scholar

Northwestern double graduate Ankur Bahl has been named a 2005 Marshall  Scholar. Bahl earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from  the Medill School of Journalism in 2003 in an accelerated program.

He will use his scholarship to study at the University of London. A member  of the 2004 World Champion Jump Rope Team, Bahl will pursue a master’s degree in migration and diaspora studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies and a second master’s in performance at Goldsmiths College. His passion for jump rope has taken him to competitions around the country and globe.

A student of Indian classical dance since age six, Bahl is now on a Fulbright Scholarship in France studying Western dance traditions. He is interested in melding Indian and Western dance to create an art form that will speak to the experience of Indian immigrants.

“Ankur was, without question, one of the very brightest students I have ever taught, a kind of Renaissance man,” said Joseph Angotti, director of Medill’s broadcast program. “From the first time I had him in class, there was no doubt whatsoever that he could achieve whatever he wished.”

An American-born child of Indian immigrants, Bahl says he pursued journalism because he “wanted to become a voice for people like me and my family.” At Northwestern, he produced, wrote, edited and narrated a television documentary about the reactions of Serbian- and Bosnian-Americans living in the same Chicago neighborhood to the trial of Slobodan Milosevic. For print media, he wrote about the climate of fear faced by immigrants after 9/11 and other issues.