Naropa grad goes to Colombia with Rotary scholarship

Naropa graduate wins Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship

Kristin Wegner of Boulder, a Naropa University environmental leadership graduate, will study architecture, urban planning, and sustainable design this fall at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, in Bogota. Wegner was named a Temple Buell Ambassadorial Scholar, a $26,000 award that will cover her expenses for one year of study. 

Boulder Flatirons Rotary Club nominated her for the scholarship, intended to encourage intercultural goodwill and understanding. The grant covers tuition, fees, room and board, transportation and some educational supplies. 

In addition to her master’s degree from Naropa, Wegner has a bachelor’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from Purdue University, and has worked for three years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic on urban sanitation and potable water projects. She expects the architecture program in Colombia to widen her world view and help her think differently about space and our surroundings. 

Wegner’s Peace Corps work in Cienfuegos, Santiago, matched her with urban high school youth in a community with limited sanitation and clean water. She worked there with Rotary Clubs to install biosand water filters. She returned to the United States in 2007 to pursue a master’s degree at Naropa.

“My experience in the Dominican Republic also demonstrated our need to communicate effectively on all levels: with ourselves, with community groups, with urban city planners, with political offices,” Wegner said.  “Organizations such as Rotary are the catalyst to being able to connect with all of these groups of people.”

Wegner joins an elite group of scholars who are expected to be ambassadors of good will. She wants to help create environmentally sustainable communities through collaboration, innovation and a positive approach to science.

After returning from Colombia, Wegner plans to write and teach in urban design, social entrepreneurship, and communication.  Wegner said she is “happily surprised and incredibly honored” by her opportunity to study in Colombia and vows to represent the United States well, “to love the country I will be living in and to bridge cultures.” 

Other Colorado students receiving scholarships for graduate study this fall are:

Pantea Beigi of Denver, awarded a World Peace Scholarship, will study at the University of Queensland in Australia. She has worked for the PeaceJam Foundation to address conditions of social and economic injustice and has assisted Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi. 

Heidi Resetartis of Denver, awarded an Ambassadorial Scholarship, will study in Costa Rica. She has studied in Spain and worked 18 months in Santiago, Chile. 

Banks Benitez of Denver, awarded an Ambassadorial Scholarship, will study at the University of Sydney in Australia. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University with a degree in International Political Economy.

These scholarships, sponsored by more than 1.2 million Rotarians in over 160 countries, are two of the largest privately funded international scholarships in the world. Ambassadorial Scholarships were founded in 1947. Since then, more than 40,000 men and women from about 100 nations have studied abroad under the program. Almost 700 scholarships of about $26,000 each were awarded for study in 2009-10.

 In 2002 the Rotary Peace and Conflict Resolution program was established.  It provides an average of $60,000 per recipient for two years of graduate study in one of eight universities around the world. More than 430 Rotary World Peace Fellows have completed two-year master’s-level programs in conflict resolution, peace studies, and international relations.

n  Reported by Carol Grever and TK Smith

Contact: Sue Deans, 303-579-9580

PHOTOS of KRISTIN WEGNER attached

For more information on Rotary, see  www.boulderrotary.org or www.rotary.org.

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