Lindsey Doyle and Jennifer
San Marino resident and Rotary Global Scholar Jennifer Binley will be extending her time at the University of Cape Town for an additional six months.
She recently provided the Rotary Club of San Marino with an update on her activities in South Africa.
The 2011 San Marino High School graduate was able to upgrade into the Master’s Program at the University of Cape Town, allowing her to complete her degree and dissertation during the additional time.
She has changed her dissertation topic to “Is foreign aid to the Kagame Government indifferent to the Kagame Government’s political behaviour? An analysis of foreign actors’ penalties and rewards.”
“I will be analyzing the responses of the UK and EU’s aid agencies to see if there is any reaction to President Kagame of Rwanda’s undemocratic acts,” Binley said. “I am specifically interested in his acts of conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
She was the first Global Scholar to be named in Rotary District 5300 and received a scholarship worth more than $30,000 to enroll in UCT’s Honours program. Binley, who began classes at UCT this past February, received a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from the University of Southern California in May 2015.
In her downtime, Binley embarked on a weekend camping trip recently in the Western Cape and encountered magnificent wildflowers in bloom in the country where it is now springtime.
“These wildflowers only flower between late August and September and transform the usually desolate Western Cape landscape into one bursting with color,” she said.
Also of interest, Binley ran into another Rotary Scholar, Lindsey Doyle, from nearby La Cañada. Though Doyle was studying in Sweden, she happened to be researching in Cape Town. Binley said the pair had lunch and “reminisced about good ol’ Southern California!”
The Rotary Scholar opportunity is for a minimum of $30,000 and is open to students who would like to study abroad after college graduation. To be considered for the scholarship, an applicant has to demonstrate strong interest by previous work and future studies in one or more of six areas of focus: peace and conflict prevention/resolution; disease prevention and treatment; water and sanitation; maternal and child health; basic education and literacy; and economic and community development.
San Marino Rotary Club also is sponsoring Gaelen Stanford-Moore from South Pasadena, who recently arrived in Cambridge, England for her study abroad. For more information on the Global Scholar program, contact Bill Payne at [email protected] or 626-252-9505.
