A 2004 Mark Morris High School graduate will soon pack his bags to study a year at England’s prestigious Cambridge University. Sam Sudar, 22, was named a Gates Cambridge Scholar earlier this month, one of 37 students from across the country to receive the award.

More than 700 students applied this year for the scholarship, established in 2000.

At Cambridge, he’s planning to do stem cell research to help develop ways to reverse paralysis caused by spinal cord injuries.

“I’m excited, very excited,” Sudar said Wednesday in a telephone conversation from the University of Washington, where he is a fifth-year student.

He’s finishing bachelor’s degrees in neurobiology, philosophy and English, with a minor in music. On campus, Sudar also works as a research assistant studying ways to restore eyesight in mammals through regeneration of the retina.

Sudar is scheduled to start classes at Cambridge this October.

His scholarship from the Gates Foundation will pay for tuition, room and board and a living stipend. Sudar didn’t know a dollar amount of the award.

He didn’t understand how competitive the award is until he was one of 100 finalists interviewed Feb. 6 in Maryland.

“It was definitely nerve-racking,” he said. “We knew only one in three could get into the spot.”

When he got word that he would receive the scholarship, Sudar said he had a feeling of “very deep pleasure.”

“I’d imagined myself jumping up and down,” he added.

His father, Robert Sudar of Longview, said Sam has “been a top student his whole life,” but the family was still a bit surprised to hear their son received the scholarship.

“He’s certainly going to benefit from the opportunity to be at a facility like that, in a country like England,” Robert Sudar said.

His advice to Sam “is to experience as much as you can and take advantage of the education. Don’t get caught up in the atmosphere and forget why you're there,” he said.

Cambridge is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world, believed to have been established in the early 13th century by disaffected Oxford scholars. It has been the cradle of some of the West's greatest minds and has produced 83 Nobel laureates to date.

The town and University of Cambridge are among the best preserved in England, clotted with medieval buildings that abut one another in narrow streets.

Living in England, learning its history and seeing the historic buildings are what Sam Sudar said he’s most looking forward to.

“From the pictures I’ve seen of Cambridge, it looks like a beautiful place,” he said.

He hopes to use some of the extra money to travel Europe. Sudar said he’s only traveled to Canada outside the United States.

“Anywhere would be extraordinary,” he said.

Learning has been a life-long passion for Sudar, who credits Longview schools for his success. Being able to compete on a national level for scholarships against students from prestigious prep schools, he said, “speaks to the strengths” of Longview schools.

Also, it doesn’t hurt that Sudar has always been driven toward academic excellence.

“I’ve been lucky and I typically like to learn different things. It’s not a chore,” he said.

The Gates Cambridge Scholarships were created through a $210 million endowment from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Scholarships pay for outstanding graduate students from outside the United Kingdom to study at the University of Cambridge. The scholarships are similar to the Oxford University’s Rhodes Scholarships.