By Kathleen J. Sullivan

Seven scholars with Stanford affiliations are among the 30 people who recently received 2013 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans.

Three of this year's Soros Fellows earned bachelor's degrees at Stanford. Two are students at the School of Medicine and two others are Stanford Law School students.

The late Paul and Daisy Soros, Hungarian immigrants and American philanthropists, established the program in 1997 and awarded the first fellowships the following year. The couple wanted to "give back" to the country that had given so much to them and their children, to address an unmet need by assisting "young New Americans at critical points in their educations" and to call attention to the extensive and diverse contributions of immigrants to the quality of life in the United States. Paul Soros died June 15.

Each fellow receives tuition and living expenses that can total as much as $90,000 over two academic years. Fellows can study in any degree-granting program in any field at any university in the United States. Fellows are selected on the basis of merit the specific criteria emphasize creativity, originality, initiative and sustained accomplishment in annual national competitions.

Following are the 2013 Soros Fellows with Stanford affiliations.

Valentin Bolotnyy

Valentin Bolotnyy, a Stanford alum, will begin his doctoral studies in economics at Harvard University in the fall. Bolotnyy, who was born to Jewish parents in Ukraine, moved to the United States with his family when he was 8. While he was a lackluster student in Ukraine, he was determined not to let his family's sacrifices go to waste. Hard work led to academic success and an internship with the late U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo (Calif.).

When his family was caught in the economic crisis of 2008, Bolotnyy's budding interest in economic analysis became his scholarly passion at Stanford. In 2011, he won the Firestone Medal for Excellence in Undergraduate Research for his thesis, which explored the role of federal affordable housing goals in the growth of the subprime mortgage market. Praised as "one of the most outstanding, original and creative undergraduate honors theses in the recent history of Stanford," it led to presentations at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Federal Reserve Board and to a forthcoming publication in Real Estate Economics.

Bolotnyy, who earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 2011 at Stanford, served as chair of Stanford in Government, a student-led public service group. After graduation, he became a research assistant at the Federal Reserve Board's Office of Financial Stability Policy and Research.

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Stanford law, medical students and undergraduate alumni win Soros Fellowships