University of Pennsylvania senior Sonya Davey has been awarded a 2014 Gates Cambridge Scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in social anthropology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

She is among 40 American students awarded Gates Cambridge scholarships this year and is the 24th Gates Cambridge Scholar from Penn since the program began in 2001.

Davey, of Gaithersburg, Md., is majoring in global health and societies, South Asian studies and biology at Penn.  In addition to being a certified EMT, she has conducted fieldwork in India focused on women’s health, specifically female feticide or sex-selective abortion, and conduced undergraduate research in colorectal cancer as an intern at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. Davey started a social venture called Ultrasafe Ultrasound, designed to curb female feticide through innovative ultrasound technology that automatically blurs the genitals in ultrasound images. 

Davey has a passion for languages. She speaks and writes Hindi, Gujarati and Sanskrit, has studied Latin and is studying Telugu. Her long-term goals include becoming a physician-anthropologist and opening an obstetric clinic in India.

More information about fellowship and scholarship opportunities is available through Penn’s Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships.