Jessica Mason, an alumna of New York University’s Silver School of Social Work, has been named a Marshall Scholar for 2013. As a Marshall Scholar, she will pursue two consecutive Master’s degrees in the UK – first the MSc in Global Politics at the London School of Economics, and then the MSc in Social Science of the Internet at the University of Oxford.

The Marshall Commission names up to 40 Marshall Scholars from the US each year. Marshall Scholars receive full funding for one or two years of graduate study in the UK. Applicants compete in one of eight geographic regions. Mason competed and won in the New York region, which includes the states of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and the Fairfield County section of Connecticut.

Mason was a double major in Social Work and History. Among many recognitions during college, she was named a Catherine B. Reynolds Scholar in Social Entrepreneurship, and won the grand prize in the Ashoka/Youth Venture “Be a Changemaker” challenge; both of those awards recognized her work on housing initiatives for homeless youth.

After her graduation in 2010 – at which she served as the all-University commencement speaker – Mason directed relief efforts for an international NGO in Haiti and was later a fellow with the Global Poverty Project. She currently works at YouTube/Google, concentrating on communications and policies regarding free expression.