Senior gets prestigious scholarship

When College senior Vanessa Cuerel received a phone call about the prestigious Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship immediately after her interview last year, she was confused and anxious.

"The Rotary Foundation said we would hear within two weeks of our final interview, but they called me that afternoon," Cuerel said. "I was wondering what was wrong."

As it turned out, nothing was wrong.

Cuerel quickly discovered that she was the recipient of the coveted award, which allows her to study abroad next year, with a stipend of $25,000 intended to cover living, tuition, travel and food expenses.

While the Rotary Foundation boasts study abroad programs in over 100 countries, Cuerel said that, as a Spanish minor, the choice was an easy one.

"I did a summer abroad in Alicante, Spain, and I fell in love with it," Cuerel said. "I lived with a host family, and they were just really welcoming, so I could really see myself living there for a while."

But regardless of the country, Director of the Center of Undergraduate Research Fellowships Art Casciato said that the opportunity presented by the Rotary scholarship is an incredible one.

"It is the unacknowledged gem of the scholarships to support study abroad," Casciato said. "It combines the flexibility of the Fulbright, in that you can use it to study in any country in the world and brings with it as much financial support as such other prestigious awards as the Rhodes, Gates and Marshall."

In fact, Cuerel said the Fulbright was one of the other scholarships for which she had intended to apply, as she did not expect to receive the Rotary.

"It was a pleasant surprise," Cuerel said. "It was one of those things where I felt the interviews had gone really well, and it was pretty tailored to what I was doing, but there were just so many incredible people applying. So in all honesty, I didn't expect it."

Casciato, though, was not surprised in the slightest.

"Vanessa is the type of person that when she walks into a room, you like her immediately," Casciato said. "And when you ask her a question, even the most intellectually rigorous one, you find out that she's not only a terrifically likeable person, but a very smart one, as well."

In addition, Casciato said that Cuerel epitomizes the Rotary Foundation's desire for "ambassadors of goodwill" who value the ideal of "service above self."

"The Rotary club is interested in developing leaders who in their future careers will address humanitarian needs of the world community, as well as improving the quality of life in the people of their home countries," he said. "I think Vanessa's concentration of Economics and International Relations and her minor in Spanish made her the perfect ambassador of goodwill to study in Madrid."

Cuerel said she plans to take these ambassadorial responsibilities quite seriously.

"They send us abroad to get rid of the bad American stereotypes," Cuerel said. "You're supposed to actively try to undo that."

In addition to fighting anti-American sentiments, Cuerel said she will be busy immersing herself in the Spanish language, and getting a master's degree -- the main reason she chose the program in the first place.

"Here I would be considered fluent, but part of the reason I'm going is to become truly fluent," Cuerel said. "Spain has an amazing program for a one-year master's degree in International Development."

However, Cuerel said she does not mind this heavy load, as she has always been interested in international affairs.

"Up until eighth grade, my family moved around internationally every two years, and some people don't like that, but I thought it was really interesting and got to learn a lot of languages," she said. "Living in third world countries, I became interested in international development and have been in contact with so many different people."

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