Ahn Named Marshall Scholar
Kaylyn Ahn is having a banner year.
The Northwestern University student, named a Truman Scholar in April, also has just received a prestigious 2025 Marshall Scholarship to study public policy at the University of Oxford in England.
Ahn, the first School of Education and Social Policy student to receive the award, is Northwestern’s 29th overall winner.
The social policy and legal studies major, set to graduate in June, travels across the country to speak at colleges, town halls and political events as a domestic violence survivor. She has dedicated much of her college career to advocating for survivors of violence.
- SESP Magazine: How Trauma Led to Advocacy
Established in 1953 as a British gesture of thanks to the people of the United States for assistance they received under the Marshall Plan after World War II, the Marshall Scholarship trains future leaders with a lasting understanding of British society and fortify the relationship between the two countries.
This year, 983 students applied to the program. The 2025 cohort of scholars represents a broad array of backgrounds and interests, and, as usual, they graduated from a wide range of institutions — 26 different U.S. colleges and universities, with nearly a third coming from state or public universities and two representing military service academies.
Ahn, who grew up in Des Plaines, Ill., said she hopes to make her mark in a world increasingly defined by global interconnectedness.
“Cross-regional and cross-cultural collaboration is essential to protect human rights without harming local populations,” she said. “I hope to continue my work on wartime rape as legal counsel in the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor.”
In addition to school, volunteer and advocacy work, and world travel, Ahn has plenty of hobbies, including a weekly pottery class. She also likes to plant avocado trees indoors and paint orchids.
When we asked Ahn how she found time to study, she laughed. “I just allocate my time wisely!” she said, only half joking. Case in point: She worked on her Marshall application during her 18-hour flight home from South Africa.
“Also, I don't view the activities I do as work necessarily," she added. "They're things I am passionate about and would do in my free time anyway."
Keeping up with Kaylyn:
- Named a 2024 Illinois Truman Scholar
- Studied in Ecuador on a Gilman Scholarship
- Serves as co-president of Northwestern's Undergraduate Prison Education Partnership
- Named to the inaugural Emerging Scholars cohort and will travel to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia this winter on an International Senior Thesis Grant from the Buffet Institute for Global Affairs to conduct archival legal research on international criminal law.
- Interned with KAN-WIN, a nonprofit for Asian survivors of domestic violence, and worked for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in spring of 2024.
- Named a Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security, and Conflict Resolution Pipeline Fellow and worked in the economic office of the US Diplomatic Mission to South Africa in Pretoria in summer 2024.
- Worked at the US Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights in summer 2023.
- Inspired and testified in support of a bill to close a legal loophole in Illinois sexual assault law, stemming from her own experience in 2021. Since the bill’s passage, police departments across the state have trained officers in proper enforcement, rendering thousands of previously unaddressed sexual assault cases eligible for prosecution.
- Appointed by Governor J.B. Pritzker to serve on the Illinois Council on Women and Girls, where she advises the Gender-based Violence Committee and serves as the chair of the Academic and Economic Opportunity Committee.
- Received the highest number of votes to the National Organization for Victim Advocacy's (NOVA) Board of Directors, becoming the youngest in history to do so. With NOVA, she oversees over $4 million in victim advocacy funding and advises a $750,000 Department of Justice grant to force the first victim advocacy fellowship to serve historically marginalized communities across ten minority serving institutions.
- Serves on the advisory board for The Harbour, a youth homeless shelter, where she won a $25,000 service impact grant from the Allstate Foundation.
- Named a 2021-22 Deberry Civic Scholar
- Named one of GLAAD’s 20 Under 20 LGBTQ+ changemakers for helping shape the future of activism in 2021.
- She is a three-time national finalist qualifier for the National Forensics Association Championships and competes in Dramatic Interpretation and Poetry Speaking events. From keynotes to panels, she has spoken across the country about her experiences as a survivor of domestic and sexual violence.