Ambassadorial Scholarships

Ambassadorial Scholarships (founded 1947) is the oldest program of the Rotary Foundation and probably the best-known. Since 1947, nearly 38,000 men and women from about 100 nations have studied abroad under its auspices. Today it is the world's largest privately funded international scholarships program. Nearly 800 scholarships were awarded for study in 2005-2006. Through grants totaling approximately $500 million, recipients from about 70 countries studied in more than 70 nations.

The purpose of the Ambassadorial Scholarships program is to further international understanding and friendly relations among people of different countries and geographical areas. The program sponsors several types of scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students as well as for qualified professionals pursuing vocational studies. While abroad, scholars serve as goodwill ambassadors to the host country and give presentations about their homelands to Rotary clubs and other groups. Upon returning home, scholars share with Rotarians and others the experiences that led to a greater understanding of their host country.

Generous contributions from Rotarians worldwide represent a continued faith that today’s Ambassadorial Scholars will be tomorrow's community and world leaders.

Notable alumni

• Sadako Ogata of Japan was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees from 1991 until 2004 and received the Seoul Peace Prize in 2000 for her work in more than 40 refugee camps and trouble spots worldwide. She received an Ambassadorial Scholarship in 1951 and attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

• Paul Volcker was chairman of the U.S. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1979 to 1987. He received an Ambassadorial Scholarship in 1951 and studied at the London School of Economics.

• Helmut Jahn is a distinguished architect who has earned much recognition since his 1966-67 Ambassadorial Scholarship from Germany to the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard and Yale and is listed as one of the 10 most influential living American architects.

• Roger Ebert of the United States is the only motion picture critic to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Film Criticism. He was awarded an Ambassadorial Scholarship in 1964 to study English literature at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

• Beryl Nashar was named Woman of the Year by the United Nations Association in 1975 for her work with the Red Cross and the Business Professional Women’s Organization of Australia. In 1949 she studied geology as an Ambassadorial Scholar at Cambridge University in England.

• Francis Moloi is the high commissioner of South Africa to India. In 2000 he studied at Harvard University as an Ambassadorial Scholar.

• Chiharu Sakai of Japan received first prize in National Power’s World Piano Competition in London in 1991 and first prize in the Debussy Contemporary Music in Portugal in 1987. She studied Piano at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles in 1985 as an Ambassadorial Scholar.

• Yukiko Shiratori of Japan is an author of child education and linguistic books for Japanese children living in Central and South America. She studied at the Women’s College of the University of North Carolina as an Ambassadorial Scholar in 1962.

• Prakas Muthuswamy has authored more than 20 cover stories and 50 special journalistic reports in India. He is now the principal correspondent of India Today, India’s largest selling English-language newsmagazine, and its other language editions. He studied journalism as an Ambassadorial Scholar at the University of Florida, USA, in the mid-1980s.

• Ricardo Garcia Rodriguez served as the Foreign Relations Minister of Chile from 1987 to 1988. He has also served as Secretary of the Interior and Minister of the Constitutional Tribunal. He was awarded an Ambassadorial Scholarship to study law at the Università degli Studi di Roma in 1955 and has been a member of the Rotary Club of Santiago since 1986.

External links

• Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship website