Travis Kanoa Chai Andrade and Nolan Musslewhite awarded Marshall Scholarships

Travis Kanoa Chai Andrade, a 2024 graduate, and senior Nolan Musslewhite have been named 2025 Marshall Scholars to pursue two years of graduate study in the United Kingdom.

The Marshall Scholarship allows "intellectually distinguished young Americans, their country's future leaders" to study at the U.K. institution of their choice, according to the Marshall Scholarships organization. Chai Andrade and Musslewhite are among the 36 winners of the 2025 Marshall Scholarships, selected from nearly 1,000 applicants from colleges and universities across the United States.

Travis Kanoa Chai Andrade

Chai Andrade, of Kea'au, Hawai‘i, was an anthropology major who earned a certificate in archaeology. For his first year of graduate study, he will pursue an M.A. in the arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at the University of East Anglia, and for the second year, an MSc in geoinformation technology and cartography at the University of Glasgow.

Chai Andrade is Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) and was born and raised on Hawai‘i Island. A recipient of Princeton's ReachOut 56-81-06 fellowship — an alumni-funded effort that supports seniors to complete a public service project during the year after graduation — he is working in Hawai‘i with the nonprofit organizations Huliauapaʻa and the Kaliʻuokapaʻakai Collective to develop long-term heritage stewardship plans.

At Princeton, Chai Andrade participated in numerous internships, including the Native American Fellowship program at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, and the Adrienne Arsht internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

"Travis' care, compassion and deep respect for others and for the 'life of the mind' is evident in all he does," said Agustín Fuentes, professor of anthropology. "I have no doubt he will be an active contributor engaging the broader issues of Indigenous cultures and histories, their relations to museums, and the ethical and practical dynamics of such relations."

For his senior thesis, which explored historical and modern Indigenous representations, Chai Andrade conducted thesis research at museums in the U.S. and U.K., which sparked his interest in studying in the U.K.

"While at the British Museum, I had a profound moment surrounded by Hawaiian artifacts I had never seen before," he said. "I grew up learning of the deep and storied connections between Hawai‘i and the U.K., and seeing these artifacts was a physical manifestation of that historical relationship."

Chai Andrade spent summer 2022 at the Santa Susana Archaeological Project in Portugal, the site of a Roman villa believed to date from the 1st century BCE to the 5th century CE. Emma Ljung, director of the project and a senior lecturer in the Princeton Writing Program, also taught him as a student in several courses at Princeton and gave presentations with him for the Society for American Archaeology.

"I have witnessed firsthand the transformation of a bright student into a bold scholar," Ljung said.

Chai Andrade was a recipient of the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence and served as a residential college adviser in Rockefeller College, a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow and co-president of the student organization Natives at Princeton.

After his Marshall Scholarship, he ultimately hopes to pursue a career in academia with a focus on Oceanic material culture. "As a professor, I also hope to partner with international organizations to bring place-based and Hawaiian perspectives to the stewardship of heritage worldwide," he said.

Nolan Musslewhite

Musslewhite, of Washington, D.C., is a history major who is also pursuing minors in classics, European studies and humanistic studies, and a certificate in history and the practice of diplomacy. For his first year of graduate study, he will pursue an M.A. in African studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, followed by an MSt in history in the Modern British History strand at the University of Oxford.

In his application statement, he wrote about the moment in his Princeton experience that crystallized his interest in African studies — while participating in Princeton in Kenya in 2022, a summer program with intensive study of Swahili:

"[One] Sunday, I arrived as a guest for Mass at the nearest Anglican church, eager to find community through my faith. Congregants urged me to introduce myself during the service, and, hearing me speak their native Swahili, invited me to become an official member of their congregation. That was the moment — overwhelmed by their warmth and hospitality — when I knew I wanted to spend my life studying and learning from East Africa."

After taking Sir David Cannadine's class "Winston Churchill, Anglo-America and the 'Special Relationship' in the 20th Century," Musslewhite attended the International Churchill Society Conference in the U.K. with Cannadine twice, sparking his interest in pursuing an advanced degree in modern British history.

"I would unhesitatingly place Nolan in the top 1 percent of all undergraduate students I have taught at universities on both sides of the Atlantic over the last 40 years," said Cannadine, the Dodge Professor of History, Emeritus, and a visiting professor at the University of Oxford. "I am impressed by his maturity, ambition and commitment to public service. In sum, Nolan is the best of the best Princeton can produce."

“Nolan is enormously accomplished, and yet he carries himself with humility and empathy," said Jill Dolan, the Annan Professor in English and professor of theater in the Lewis Center for the Arts, who has worked with Musslewhite on various University committees. "Princeton is much better for his presence among us, and I’ve been thrilled to know him and to see his growth. Nolan will offer so much as a global citizen; I’m looking forward to tracking his progress for years to come.”

Musslewhite said his senior thesis "will examine British efforts to suppress the East African slave trade in the latter half of the 19th century — an East African parallel to the more famous efforts of the West Africa Squadron to suppress the Atlantic slave trade earlier in the 19th century." Last summer, with funding from the history department, he conducted thesis research in the Zanzibar National Archives, Kenya National Archives at Nairobi, and U.K. National Archives. Earlier in the summer, he interned at Centerview Partners in New York City with co-founder Blair Effron '84 (also a history major) and current Princeton University trustee.

The summer before his junior year, Musslewhite interned at the U.S. Department of Defense in Washington, D.C. Through his academic coursework and as an international policy associate with Princeton's Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, he has traveled to Athens, Berlin, Brussels, Edinburgh, London, Paris, Rome and Vienna.

He is a recipient of the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence and the William Koren, Jr. Memorial Prize in History, a Bogle Fellow in Civic Service, a team leader and fellow at the Center for International Security Studies, co-chair of the Julis-Rabinowitz Center's Undergraduate Associates, co-president of the Alexander Hamilton Society of Princeton and an Orange Key tour guide.

After the Marshall, he ultimately hopes to pursue a career focused on shaping American foreign policy toward Africa. "Former South African President Thabo Mbeki called the 21st century 'the African century,' and Africa is an enormously complex, dynamic and exciting continent," Musslewhite said. "It's a very inspiring place to study and to spend one's early career."