Senior Benjamin Clemenzi-Allen, a Belchertown native and English major, is the first University of Massachusetts student to be awarded the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, which funds one year of graduate study at the University of Cambridge in England.

Forty-six U.S. students have been selected to receive a Gates Cambridge Scholarship.

"I applied because I have a growing interest in British higher education," said Clemenzi-Allen. "There are a number of scholars at Cambridge University that I want to work with, and under the guidance of Dr. Susan Whitbourne at the OSNA [Office of National Scholarship Advisement] office, I began putting out applications to various overseas scholarship funds. This one seemed to suit me best."

Clemenzi-Allen, a member of Commonwealth College, transferred to UMass after receiving his Associate's Degree from Northern Essex Community College, where he originally fell in love with experimental poetry. He submitted his application for the scholarship early last semester.

The project Clemenzi-Allen proposed will take two early 20th-century poets, Gertrude Stein and Erza Pound, and examine their theories and manners of linguistic representation. He is interested in how poets' notions of representation mirror historical occurrences or social developments. He enrolled in the Master of Philosophy (or MPhil) in American Literature in the program.

"Earning this award, I hope, will encourage other UMass students and community college graduates to apply for prestigious awards, so I am grateful to be a part of something potentially positive for other students," Clemenzi-Allen said.

Not only is the application challenging, according to Clemenzi-Allen, but if a student is then selected for an interview, they are flown to Annapolis, Md., for a night and are interviewed for 20-25 minutes by a committee.

"It's pretty intense, but I had a lot of help from both current and former UMass faculty members, especially Dr. Ruth Jennison - who is great - and Dr. David Swain as well as help from the ONSA office and Dr. Susan Whitbourne," said Clemenzi-Allen.

His graduate research has had to do with 20th-century poetry from either the English or Russian traditions. He has studied and theorized on the connections between American Language poetry and Russian Formalism, focusing on Lyn Hejinian and Viktor Shklovsky. In addition, he has also studied Erza Pound in relation to World War I, some key concepts of structuralism and Mayakovsky's Bolshevik-Futurist aesthetic. Through Commonwealth College, he has had the opportunity to conduct a number of independent studies, including his thesis.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation of Seattle, Wash., announced a donation to the University of Cambridge of $210 million to establish the Gates Cambridge Trust in October 2000.

This support creates an international scholarship program geared toward those who do not live in the United Kingdom.