Harrison E. Cass, Jr., Chairman

District 5970

Education Awards Sub-committee

February 2011

Dear Rotary Club President:

Subject:  2012-2013 Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship Program

This letter contains information concerning the major jewel in the crown of the Rotary Foundation's continuing effort to further international understanding and good will:  its scholarship program.  You, as the president of your club, are the person to whom Rotarians and other members of your community will turn for authoritative data and assistance regarding the Foundation's scholarships.  It is the District Scholarship Committee's sincere hope that you will make the time to read this long letter and its enclosures carefully before you may refer it to another member of your club for further action.  If this letter and its enclosures do not answer your questions, please call, write or e-mail me.  Other committee members will also be able to answer your questions.

For many years, the Rotary Foundation has provided graduate or advanced undergraduate study opportunities (U.S. $26,000 maximum) for outstanding young people to attend for an academic year a college or university in another of the many countries of the world in which there are Rotary clubs.  The ambassadorial role of Rotary scholars during and following their year of study in another country is emphasized.  The number of scholarships for which a Rotary district may submit nominations is determined by the amount of money which its members contributed to the Foundation's "unrestricted" fund during the third preceding Rotary year.  Our District 5970 will be eligible to make at least one regular Academic-Year Ambassadorial Scholarship nomination for 2012-2013.

Rotary scholarships cover round-trip air transportation between the scholar's home and study city; required tuition and academic fees; books and educational supplies; on-campus double room and board, if available, or an allowance for living costs if on-campus accommodations are unavailable; and limited costs of educational travel during the award year.  The scholarship provides a flat grant from The Rotary Foundation of $26,000.

A candidate whose native language is other than that of the proposed study institution and country must submit evidence of ability to read, write and speak the host country's language.  Please read "Language Proficiency Requirements." Language proficiency examinations are administered to all selected scholars planning to study in the country whose language differs from that of their home country.  If the selected scholar's performance on the language examination is unsatisfactory, concentrated language study usually is undertaken by Americans at one of several specialized language institutes in the United States rather than in a foreign country.  Unsatisfactory performance on tests administered at the end of the special language study period may result in the withdrawal of the scholarship.

During the period of study abroad, Rotary scholars are expected to be outstanding ambassadors of good will to the people of the host country through informal and formal appearances before Rotary clubs and district meetings and before school and civic organizations.  They are expected to share their experiences with members of Rotary clubs and other groups upon their return to their home country.  Of course, it is essential that Rotary scholars will be very good students scholastically.  It is most unlikely they will be able in one academic year to complete a degree program at the university they'll attend abroad, although some of the credits they'll earn there may be applicable toward an advanced degree from an institution in their home country.  Most of the applicants who have been nominated for scholarships by this district's Education Awards Subcommittee have been persons who will have completed undergraduate degree requirements before beginning study abroad.  The District selection committee will be looking for individuals with leadership skills and the potential to be an effective leader.  Local clubs should, likewise, use leadership as a lead quality in the candidate(s) it recommends.  See, the www.rotary.org web page and follow the Student and Youth link to Education Programs and to Ambassadorial Scholarships. 

The Ambassadorial Scholarship program supports the mission of the Rotary Foundation by:  1) encouraging scholars to dedicate their personal and professional lives to improving the quality of life for the people of their home community and country; and 2) instilling in scholars the Rotary ideal of “Service Above Self” through active participation in Rotary service projects.

Applicants (and Rotarians) should realize, of course, that competition for awards is keenest for study in English-speaking countries such as Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.  They should be aware too that their chances of being assigned to world-famous universities such as Oxford, Cambridge and the University of Paris (the Sorbonne) are more difficult than if their institutional preferences (of which they must list five) are for less prestigious universities.  (By the same token, Rotary scholars from other nations who come to this country are not concentrated at Harvard and Stanford!)  When a successful applicant is assigned to a university by the Rotary Foundation, it is the scholar's responsibility to initiate contact with the institution, to satisfy all of its requirements for admission and to be formally admitted as a condition of receiving an award.  We have found that even exceptionally well-qualified applicants who have completed two or three years of undergraduate work in this country nevertheless encounter difficulty gaining admission to some international universities for their third or fourth year of undergraduate study.  This is another reason for which the district subcommittee tends to favor applicants for graduate awards.  Rotary International trustees encourage districts (clubs) to seek out candidates who are interested in studying in unusual or new areas of the Rotary world. 

Rotarians and their spouses and their lineal descendants (child or grandchild by blood or legal adoption), the spouses of their lineal descendants, or an ancestor (parent or grandparent) of any living person in the foregoing categories, and employees of Rotary at any level are ineligible to apply for these scholarships.  To be eligible to make application for an advanced undergraduate or graduate scholarship through District 5970, the applicant must be a resident of this district and/or attending a college or university located within it.  An applicant who has not lived in District 5970 for a number of years and who is unlikely to return here except for brief visits (even though his/her parents may live in the district) should be encouraged to seek the sponsorship of a Rotary club in the community in which he/she resides and/or attends college at this time.

All candidates must be sponsored by the local Rotary club through which the application is made and be nominated by the sponsoring club's district subcommittee.  Completed applications (be sure to use only the 2012-13 form) must be received by the local clubs on or before Friday, July, 22, 2011.  Completed applications from sponsoring clubs must reach me on or before Saturday, July 30.  If an application is faxed to meet the July 30 deadline, it must be followed with an original copy by mail. 

All sponsored applications that meet deadlines will be reviewed and screened by District Subcommittee.  Those applicants whose application materials favorably pass the district's screening will be interviewed by the district subcommittee on Saturday August 20, 2011.  In order for candidates to successfully pass the initial district screening, the quality of the scholarship application will need to be SUPERB.  This is a prestigious, high quality, and financially prodigious award.  The application MUST represent the distinctiveness of the award.  Interviews will be held on the University of Northern Iowa campus in Cedar Falls, specific building TBD later.   Costs of travel to the interview site are the responsibility of the applicant.  Local clubs should not accept or forward an application to the district subcommittee unless the candidate is able and willing to come for the interview.

Every club in the district is entitled to sponsor one applicant.  Clubs with 50 to 99 members may sponsor two; those with 100 to 199 members may sponsor three; those with 200 or more members may sponsor four applicants.  (The District Governor's Membership report for the month of Feb. 2011 will be the club size "authority.")  Each club which is eligible to sponsor more than one candidate is expected to evaluate and rank them.  To maximize the two-way ambassadorial role of Rotary scholars by providing the sponsoring club with opportunities to share in the scholar's experience in another country upon his/her return, it is clear the objectives of the program will not be met if a club sponsors someone it doesn't know and is unlikely ever to see in the future as a favor to another club which has "filled its quota."

The best candidates for Rotary scholarships, in my opinion, are those outstanding young people who are identified by Rotarians who will take the initiative to contact and inform them of these great opportunities.  If that approach is to be most productive, it is obvious that members of your club must have more than casual information concerning the program.  I hope you will be able and willing to provide them with that at an early meeting and to remind them periodically of the chance your club has to sponsor (at no cost to it) some outstanding young person(s) from your community.  It is a chance to give a prospective applicant what might well become one of the great experiences of a lifetime. 

The completion of the application blank and the gathering of required references, language evaluations and transcripts take considerable time and effort. It is, therefore, important that the prospective candidate now enrolled in the college or university should get started on the task well before the end of the spring semester.  Incidentally, a club is not extending a favor to a candidate who seeks its sponsorship by agreeing to endorse him/her simply because no one else has sought the club's sponsorship.  An unqualified or ineligible applicant should not be sponsored by any club.  A club-sponsored application(s) should have a strong letter of support and recommendation of the candidate(s) from the club person or persons responsible for the local scholarship program.  Your club should identify a "sponsor counselor" for scholar applicant(s) to assist the candidate(s) in learning about Rotary, the purpose/goals of the scholarship program and help in the completion of the application process.  This person could also assist your candidate if he/she becomes a scholarship recipient in getting prepared for the ambassadorial year.

You may find that an ad hoc committee appointed by you and consisting of three or four persons (not necessarily Rotarians) will be helpful in identifying an outstanding potential applicant or two.  Committee members could include your high school principal or counselor or other persons well-acquainted with many of your area's young people who are now at least in their second year of college.  You may wish to "recruit" those persons as applicants your club would be happy to sponsor. 

Application materials, (available on the web), consist of a complete application form and informational materials. The educator recommendation forms and language ability evaluation are included in the application form.  Also included, with this letter, is a memorandum of instructions and a checklist for District 5970 candidates. 

The application materials and information are available on the World Wide Web (http://www.rotary.org)   Follow “The Student and Youth” link, http://www.rotary.org/EN/STUDENTSANDYOUTH/Pages/ridefault.aspx  to Educational Programs.     You will note that the web page briefly describes former awards that have now been discontinued.  The only scholarship being considered by District 5970 is the Academic-Year Ambassadorial Scholarship.

The major deadline for receiving completed applications at the local and district levels is July 30, 2011.  You may wish to delegate major responsibility for the implementation of the scholarship program for 2012-2013 at the local club level to your designated scholarship committee.

Sincerely,

Harrison E. Cass, Jr., Chairman

Rotary District 5970

Educational Awards Subcommittee