Grants Awarded
Rotary Albert Park has sponsored two local students who have recently been awarded Rotary Scholarships this year.
- Rachel Walters, resident in St Kilda, has been awarded a Rotary Global Grant Scholarship to study International Human Rights Law (LLM, 1 year) at Columbia Law School in New York, NY, USA. Interviewed by the District 9800 Selection Committee in April Rachel was one of five applicants put forward to The Rotary Foundation for scholarships. The scholarship is in the amount of US$ 31,500 towards her fees. She will be hosted by the Rotary Club of Scarsdale and.
- Jazmine Elmolla a resident of Port Melbourne was also considered worthy of a Global Grant Scholarship but her chosen course, Masters of Science in International Human Rights Law at Oxford University, was deemed ineligible for The Rotary Foundation Global Grant due to being changed to a 2-year part-time course. Her application, experience and future plans in the Focus Area of Peace & Conflict Resolution were considered by the Selection Committee to warrant our support. With backing from the District 9800 Executive Team, David Gorman (Albert Park) the chair of the Global Grants Committee, sought support from clubs around the district to provide a District-sponsored Scholarship of equivalent amount. Pledges were received from 9 clubs for some $35,000 which qualifies for a multi-club District Grant of $12,000 - a total scholarship amount of AU$47,000 (on current exchange rates approximately equivalent to US$31,500). This will be paid by instalments across the 2-year study period as Term Fees become due.
Three other scholarship applicants were put forward to The Rotary Foundation for Global Grant Scholarships:
- Alex Batsis (D9800 sponsored by Carlton): Master of Science in Law and Finance (1 year) at Oxford university
- Hannah Crothers (Bendigo to Dist D9705): Master of Laws (Public International Law specialism) (1 year) at London School of Economics
- Jeffrey Xia (Melbourne to Dist 9790): Joint MBA & MS Environment and Resources (2-years) at Stanford University, California USA.
These last two applicants were passed across to neighbouring Districts for funding purposes as Dist 9800 allocates funding each year from District Designated Funds (DDF) for only two scholarships. To get five scholars funded in one year is a record achievement in District 9800!