Chike Croslin, a graduating Arts & Sciences senior at Washington University in St. Louis, has received the Alumni and Friends of the London School of Economics Scholarship for 2011-12.
The academic merit scholarship, given annually to an American citizen or permanent resident of the United States, covers full tuition fees for one year of graduate study at the London School of Economics.
Croslin, a political science major with a minor in institutional social analysis, both in Arts & Sciences, will graduate from Washington University May 20. He will pursue a master’s of science degree in anthropology and development at the London School of Economics.
His interest in undertaking advanced studies in anthropology and development and his professional interest in international development spring from various cross-cultural experiences in international service.
After mentoring at an orphanage in Costa Rica, Croslin designed workshops on family communication in a mental health clinic in Argentina, developed art projects for impoverished children, and designed and hosted a cooking contest to dismantle interpersonal barriers among previously homeless men in Chile.
All of his activities were conducted in Spanish, and his first project in Costa Rica won him a Bronze Presidential Award for Volunteer Service.
At WUSTL, Croslin is a Hirsch Family Undergraduate Fellow at the Center for New Institutional Social Sciences.
He has served as choreographer for Washington University’s Salsa team, WUSauce, for the past two years, and has performed on campus and nationally at the Chicago International Salsa Congress.
Additionally, he served for two years on the executive board of the Association of Black Students, first as co-chair of community service and later as political affairs chair.
Croslin, who has mentored at a juvenile detention center, currently volunteers at Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region’s teen sex education program, while simultaneously conducting research on the benefits of a reformed approach to sex education.
Croslin, who is from Hyattsville, Md., graduated in 2007 from DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, where he was a varsity swimmer and member of the National Honor Society.
In addition to Salsa dancing and cooking for friends and family, Croslin enjoys practicing the martial arts, and has been trained in Tang Soo Do and Moo Duk Kwan since the age of 6, earning his black belt at age 12.