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ROTARY FOUNDATION AMBASSADORIAL SCHOLARSHIPS

Eligibility:		Citizenship in a country with Rotary Clubs, but may not be a family member of a Rotary member or an employee of Rotary International.
Duration:		Variable; 3 months to two years.
Award:		Variable; about $26,000 for year long Ambassadorial Scholarships.
Holy Cross procedure:		Initial application must be made through a local Rotary Club in the applicant's legal or permanent residence, or place of full time study or employment. At present the Auburn Rotary Club supports this program.
Essay(s):		A two-page autobiography; a detailed statement of intent (two pages) and a one-page list of principal interests and activities with leadership roles.
Then what:		Application deadlines are set by individual Rotary Clubs.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarships are wonderful opportunities to travel overseas while studying a subject of interest to you and meeting people. Rotary International has as part of its mission the fostering of international understanding. They aim to "increase awareness of and respect for cultural differences" by sending students abroad, and encourage scholars to participate in Rotary service projects, hoping that they will eventually become leaders who can address world humanitarian needs. You should keep these objectives in mind while you prepare the application essays. A special "menu of service opportunities" is of particular interest to Rotary: AIDS awareness and/or education; Children at Risk (prevention of violence and drug abuse); Concern for the Aging; Functional Literacy; Hunger; Polio eradication; and Preserve Planet Earth. Students intending to pursue any of these areas may be given special encouragement.

Rotary World Peace Scholarships support graduate study in a 21-month master's program in international studies, peace studies, and conflict resolution at one of the seven Rotary Centers for International Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution. These Centers are at Duke University/University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; University of California, Berkeley; International Christian University, Tokyo; Sciences Po, Paris; Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires; University of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England; and University of Queensland, in Brisbane, Australia.

Ambassadorial Scholarships are available to anyone who has completed at least two years of college course work. Thus, you could interrupt your Holy Cross career to use one of these awards, or spend a summer on it. Most of our winning students have planned to use their scholarships in the year after graduation, however. To have completed the process by then, you must begin it in the spring of your junior year. There are three kinds:

academic-year ambassadorial scholarships, $10,000-$26,000 for 9 months of study at an institution assigned by the Rotary Foundation in the country of choice;
multi-year ambassadorial scholarships, $12,000 per year for 2 years of study leading to a degree at an institution assigned by the Rotary Foundation; and
cultural ambassadorial scholarships, $12,000 for 3 months or $19,000 for 6 months of intensive language training and cultural immersion for students who have completed at least one year of college-level course work in the language of interest.

World Peace Scholarships are awarded to 70 students each year, who study outside their home country, ten at each center. Winners are expected to be proficient in more than one language, even if they propose to study in an English-speaking country. The award includes full tuition and fees, a monthly stipend for room and board, travel costs, and a contingency fund to cover books and costs of visits to local Rotary Clubs. You need to apply 18 months in advance of the planned study period; specific deadlines are set by the individual local clubs that screen the applicants. The usual deadlines are between March and August.

Not all types of award are supported by all Rotary Clubs. In fact, the most difficult part of this process may be to identify a club in the area of your home town that will accept your application. It is through that club that you will discover whether they will support the work you hope to do, and what the format and deadline is for applications. You may get some help from the Rotary Foundation home page: http://www.rotary.org. A searchable data base of local clubs is found at http://www.rotary.org/cgi-bin/rbox/datadrill.cgi?. The application form is available in pdf format for downloading at http://www.rotary.org/newsandinfo/downloadcenter/pdfs/139en.pdf.

The field of study for the first two types of awards is essentially unlimited, except that you cannot do unsupervised research, medical internships or residencies, or full-time employment. The application will undoubtedly ask you to identify your preferred choices for location of study, but you may not stay in a city, state, or province where you have previously lived or studied for more than 6 months, and the Rotary Foundation reserves the right to make an alternative assignment to ensure wide geographical distribution of scholars.

Unlike many of the other awards handled by the Graduate Studies Office, we can do little to assist you directly in winning Rotary Scholarships, since rules can vary widely from club to club. We stand ready, however, to discuss with you possible courses of study, to help you interpret directions on application forms, and to help you prepare for interviews, if that is part of the selection procedure. Do let us know about the outcome of your application too!

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