Collin ’25 earns UVA’s prestigious Jefferson Scholarship

The senior has been awarded one of the most highly selective merit scholarships in the nation, making it two consecutive years that University of Virginia has selected a USN student for a full ride covering the cost of instruction, housing, and meals.
The Jefferson Scholars Foundation at the University of Virginia selected Collin Chan ’25 as one of 36 recipients of the Jefferson Scholarship.
 
In order to be named a Jefferson Scholar, candidates must undergo a rigorous, highly competitive, multistage selection process. First, they are nominated by their high schools or affiliated organizations based on their demonstrated excellence and exceptional potential in the areas of leadership, scholarship, and citizenship. Once nominated, the students go through at least one round of regional interviews. If selected as a regional finalist, students are then invited to participate in a final round of interviews. This year, over 2,500 students were nominated for the Scholarship, and nearly 150 finalists were invited to take part in remote interviews conducted by UVA alumni and faculty.
 
The 36 selected recipients of the 2025 Jefferson Scholarship boast a number of significant achievements and Collin is no exception. During his time at University School of Nashville, Collin was also named a National Merit Scholarship Corporation semifinalists, among less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors and one of the highest-scoring PSAT entrants in Tennessee. As Vice President of the HS Coding Club, he helped bring the first hackathon in Nashville for high schoolers to USN. He also has been a member of the school’s regional-winning Science Olympiad team and placed third in the biomedical sciences category for his poster  “Fusion Pro: A Recurrent Neural Network-Based Program to Accelerate Construction of Fusion Proteins Toward Drug Discovery" at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium after presenting his work to an audience of military researchers and generals.

Collin will join a cohort of 153 Scholars currently funded by the Foundation at UVA, as well as a community of more than 1,000 Scholar alumni. In addition to receiving the full cost of attending the University for four years, Jefferson Scholars benefit from a number of enrichment programs sponsored by the Foundation, including travel abroad, career networking activities, and a leadership speaker series. 

Margot Ross '24 was USN’s last UVA Jefferson Scholar. 

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