You reached this page through the archive. Click here to return to the archive.

Note: This article is over a year old and information contained in it may no longer be accurate. Please use the contact information in the lower-left corner to verify any information in this article.

Belazelkoska awarded Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship

By Mara Kumagai Fink '11
May 5, 2009

As a native Macedonian on a student visa, Vera Belazelkoska '09 wasn't able to apply for some of the nation's top post-graduate programs.

After a lot of searching, she received a message from Professor of Political Science Kris Thalhammer about a Rotary Foundation scholarship that included this postscript: "You can apply for this one -- I checked!"

BelazelkoskaVera09a
Vera Belazelkoska '09 hopes to use her scholarship to start a microlending program in Latin America or Turkey.
A lengthy application, many essays and a strenuous nine-hour interview later, Belazelkoska has been awarded a 2009-10 Ambassadorial Scholarship from the Rotary Foundation. With this award she will travel to Colombia, Argentina or Turkey, where she hopes to implement a microlending program in correlation with a local non-governmental organization. Belazelkoska's interest in microlending stems from experiences interning abroad with microlending programs in Namibia and Nicaragua.

Belazelkoska says she's excited about the opportunity to be a part of the Rotary program in particular. "My passion to advocate for issues of peace, justice and equality matched the Rotary's mission of spreading cultural understanding and goodwill throughout the world," she says. "I began to gain confidence that not only was I a good candidate to become a Rotary Ambassador, but that the Rotary is a foundation I would like to represent."

Started in 1947, Rotary's Ambassadorial Scholarship program -- the largest privately funded international scholarship program in the world -- has sent almost 38,000 scholars from nearly 100 countries to all points of the globe. The program aims to promote friendly relations and understanding between nations and people.

After she learns her country placement, Belazelkoska will make connections with a local university and NGOs in order to set the groundwork for a successful project. In the meantime, she'll be working her first job after graduating this spring: teaching English at Chiang Mai University in Thailand.

In November, Susan Hill '09 received a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship to spend one year at Central European University in Hungary studying anthropology and Eastern European culture.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.