Ambassadorial Scholarships

Updated on Jan 02, 2024

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Ambassadorial Scholarships (founded 1947) was a program of the Rotary Foundation. The program ended in 2013. From 1947 to 2013, nearly 38,000 men and women from about 100 nations studied abroad under its auspices.

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

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, United States, 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.

Janet Chvatal is an American soprano who has produced and directed over a hundred musical events, galas and concert series in Europe and in the USA to support charity organizations for children and disabled adults in the United States, Germany, Ethiopia, and Sri Lanka. She was awarded an Ambassadorial Scholarship to study Opera in Vienna, Austria in 1987.

References

Ambassadorial Scholarships Wikipedia

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