Wichita ? Mark Bradshaw wants to change the world.

Last year he learned how easily his own world could change.

On the verge of winning a Marshall Scholarship last November – the most prestigious of his many awards – Bradshaw was diagnosed with cancer.

He withdrew from the scholarship competition, quit his Washington, D.C., internship and returned to Kansas, not knowing how much longer he might live.

“I just thought, ‘Oh my God,'” said Bill Tuttle, one of Bradshaw’s former professors at Kansas University. “Here’s one of the most impressive people I’ve ever met. This guy’s going to make an important contribution – and then you think that might not happen.”

Now a year later, Bradshaw has recovered from his cancer and won a Marshall Scholarship, which provides $50,000 for each of two years of graduate study in Great Britain.

But Bradshaw, a May 2001 KU graduate in American studies, doesn’t see his scholarship as a resurrection. He says he’s just resuming his quest toward becoming an environmental activist.

“A lot of people I talk to say, ‘Your story is so inspiring,'” Bradshaw said. “I don’t want it to be about that. I just want it to be about me getting my graduate education.”

Early start

Bradshaw realized he wanted to work with environmental issues since he sat in his parents’ southeast Kansas farmhouse as a child, thumbing through National Geographic magazines.

His father, Donald, grew wheat and corn and raised cattle near Walnut, a town of about 200 northwest of Pittsburg.

¢ Kansas University produces eighth Marshall scholar (12-08-2000)¢ Marshall Scholarships Web site

Bradshaw, 24, is the youngest of his six siblings and three stepsiblings. His mother died of cancer when he was 5.

In middle school and high school, Bradshaw attended summer seminars on science at Pittsburg State University. During one of them, he tested water from a stream near his family’s farm and compared it with previous years’ data.

“We could tell the water quality was affected by the cattle and the small feedlots nearby,” Bradshaw said.

After he graduated from Girard High School in 1996, he decided he would major in art at KU, hoping to become an illustrator for a nonprofit organization dealing with the environment.

“As time went on, why I was doing the art – the skill of it – became less important than the reasons why I was doing it,” he said.

In his sophomore year, he decided to switch to American studies, to study Americans’ relationship with their environment.

Lawrence activist

While at KU, Bradshaw helped start composting and recycling programs at scholarship halls. He also was active on several campus and community environmental boards.

One of his biggest accomplishments was starting GROW, a joint community gardening project with the Boys and Girls Club.

“I grew up on a farm,” he said. “But most folks don’t get the experience of where their food comes from. It makes these environmental issues more real. Growing out and eating tomatoes is more important than being lectured about tomatoes.”

Stacey White, assistant professor of archaeology, was the GROW faculty adviser while Bradshaw was at KU.

“I was a little skeptical at first. I didn’t know how far it would go,” she said. “But he has the intelligence capability to do anything he wants to do. He has the commitment to social change and environmental change. He wants to make the world a better place. That sounds a little trite, but for someone like Mark, it’s not. It’s what he’s about.”

Plan deferred

After graduation, Bradshaw began a yearlong internship with the National Rural Development Partnership, a U.S. Department of Agriculture program that assists small farms in other nations.

He was working in his chosen field, making connections in Washington, D.C., and vying for a Marshall Scholarship to fund his graduate education.

In November, he interviewed in Chicago for the Marshall, given to about 40 students each year by the British government. It’s often compared in prestige to the Rhodes Scholarship.

A few days later, before he heard anything about the scholarship, he was diagnosed with sarcoma, a soft-tissue form of cancer. He moved to Wichita to be closer to family for radiation treatments.

“It was scary and upsetting,” he said matter-of-factly. “It was a huge health concern. It was best for me to be back here with my family.”

The cancer led to his left leg being amputated this summer. Bradshaw now walks with a prosthetic.

By this fall, his health had improved enough for him to apply again for a Marshall Scholarship.

“It was a big decision to go through the process again,” he said. “It seemed like when I got sick, my plan was off. I learned to be a little less dead-set on a timeline.”

Winner

Last week, Bradshaw learned he had won the scholarship. He’s KU’s eighth Marshall winner and the first since 1999.

He plans to study beginning next fall at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Until then, he’s working at a bookstore in Wichita.

His long-term goal is to go to law school and become an environmental activist.

Big scholarships aren’t new to Bradshaw. While an undergraduate, he won a Morris K. Udall Scholarship worth $5,000, one of 80 given in the nation, and a Truman Scholarship worth about $30,000 toward graduate education.

Bradshaw still plans to use the Truman money when he attends law school.

He is the first KU student to win Truman, Udall and Marshall scholarships.

With his plans starting to come back into focus, Bradshaw says his goal is to make environmental issues a local topic.

“I want to change the face of environmentalism,” he said.

That includes focusing on family farms and local distribution of crops. Recent terrorist scares have shed light on the vulnerability of the national food system, he said.

“Local food systems feed people more economically and environmentally,” he said.

‘Stretch his wings’

Bradshaw may not think his story is inspiring, but KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway disagrees.

“To have Mark win this is an inspirational story,” Hemenway said. “He’s shown courage in ways one wouldn’t be expected to show at his age. It’s so positive to talk to him. You can learn a lot of lessons from a young man like that.”

Bradshaw’s former professors agree – and they’re convinced he has a successful career ahead of him.

“Mark wants to change the world, and he starts in very concrete ways,” said Cheryl Lester, associate professor of English. “He’s not egotistical. He’s a humble person. He’s ready to go out again and stretch his wings.”