Sally Liu

You might think that after winning the prestigious Marshall Scholarship last fall, senior Sally Liu would want to coast through the rest of the year. And maybe she is-if you consider pole-vaulting for varsity track and finishing up a research manuscript "coasting."

"I'm not as busy as I was in years past," Liu says, laughing.

But even if she spends a little more time out salsa dancing and a little less in the lab, this California native, Angier B. Duke scholar, varsity athlete and Rhodes finalist is looking to clear new heights in the United Kingdom next year.

Liu will start her two-year stint for the Marshall at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where she'll earn a master's degree in public health. Having conducted research at the smallest of scales in her work with Professor Nina Sherwood-occasionally dissecting fruit fly brains with tiny forceps-Liu is excited to study health care sans microscope.

"I want to get a broader perspective on health care. The cellular, molecular part is really interesting and important, but I want to see how health care fits into society," she says.

Liu will move to the London School of Economics and Political Science and study health care policy in her second Marshall year, giving her the extended study abroad experience that track and research prevented her from having as an undergraduate.

And what's next for Liu-fruit-fly breeding, Olympic pole-vaulting, vacationing in Rio? No, she says: It's off to medical school.