PHILADELPHIA – Penn Athletics is proud to announce that senior Daniel Brennan, a member of the men's lightweight crew program, was recently named a 2020 recipient of the Thouron Award by the University of Pennsylvania. A history and political science major in the College of Arts and Sciences, Brennan is one of seven recipients across the Penn community to earn this prestigious scholarship.
 
"The Thouron Award is a tremendous honor for Daniel and our program," said Penn's Fred W. Leonard Head Coach of Men's Lightweight Crew, Colin Farrell. "We are proud of this incredible achievement and look forward to Daniel representing the University and Penn Lightweights in the U.K.!"
 
The Thouron Award is a graduate exchange program between the United Kingdom and Penn. Its funding provides generous scholarships for postgraduate study abroad, and recipients join a stimulating community of international scholars and Thouron alumni. With its goal of furthering British-American understanding, the Thouron award gives British Scholars the opportunity to study at any of the dozen graduate schools of the University of Pennsylvania, while American Scholars can pursue a graduate degree at any university in the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland). On both sides of the Atlantic, Scholars enjoy the support and inspiration of the Thouron Community.
 
The award was established in 1960 by Sir John Thouron and his American wife, Lady Thouron, to promote closer ties between the people of the United Kingdom and the United States. It is among the most prestigious and generous academic scholarships in the world, giving young people of outstanding ability and open minds the means to study, travel and immerse themselves in the life of their host country. Scholars are chosen not only for their academic achievements, but for their ability to engage with one another and take an active part in a changing world. They are expected to act as student-ambassadors, putting their energy and intellect to work strengthening the ties between two great nations.
 
Meet Daniel Brennan (from the University's Thouron Award release)
Senior Daniel Brennan, of Miami, is a varsity oarsmen for Penn's lightweight crew team majoring in history and political science, with concentrations in military history and political theory in the School of Arts and Sciences. As a United States Marine and past moderator of the University's Philomathean Society, he is an advocate for greater civil-military awareness. Brennan works on national security policy as a Student Fellow at the Perry World House and is writing his honors thesis on the development of counterinsurgency strategy during the Cuban War of Independence. He is a Benjamin Franklin Scholar and has worked on anti-hunger issues both as a Fox Leadership Fellow with the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia and by organizing his crew team's meal-packing events. In the U.K., he plans to pursue a master's degree in military history.