ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Naval Academy Midshipman 1st Class (senior) Christopher Cantillo of Sarasota, Fla., has been awarded a Marshall Scholarship. This highly-competitive academic scholarship provides two years of postgraduate study at a United Kingdom university.

Cantillo is an Aerospace Engineering major with a minor in Spanish. He intends to pursue a Master’s in Engineering for Sustainable Development at the University of Cambridge. Cantillo is the captain of the Varsity Offshore Sailing Team, has a 4.0 GPA and is ranked second in overall Order of Merit for the Class of 2018. Cantillo is a Trident Scholar, currently researching the effects of transient wind gusts on ship airwakes, and plays the saxophone in the Naval Academy’s jazz band, Trident Brass. Last summer, Cantillo skippered the Navy 44 Integrity to first in class in the Marion to Bermuda race, interned with VX-20, the Navy’s fixed-wing developmental test squadron, and completed the Powered Flight Program.

Cantillo is a 2014 graduate of Pine View School in Sarasota, Fla. Cantillo will commission as a Navy Ensign upon graduation from the Naval Academy.  After completing his studies at Cambridge, Cantillo will attend flight school and train to become in a Navy pilot. 

Marshall Scholarships were founded by an Act of Parliament in 1953 and commemorate the humane ideals of the European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan).  Goals of the program include enabling future leaders of America the opportunity to study in the UK, to help scholars gain an understanding and appreciation of contemporary Britain, to contribute to the advancement of knowledge at Britain’s centers of academic excellence, and to motivate scholars to act as ambassadors throughout their lives, thus strengthening British-American understanding.  This year 43 Marshall Scholars have been selected.

For more information on the Marshall Scholarship please visit http://www.marshallscholarship.org/.