CNU student wins $23,000 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship

News Release - Feb. 12, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media contact:
Carolyn Cuthrell
Office of Communications and Public Relations
carolyn.cuthrell@cnu.edu
(757) 594-7331

Philip Leclerc

(NEWPORT NEWS, Va.) — Philip Leclerc, a junior at Christopher Newport University, has won a $23,000 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship for 2007-2008, permitting him to study at the University of Dal El Salaam in Tanzania during the 2007-2008 academic year. He will be departing for Tanzania this fall.

The Ambassadorial Scholarship program is the world’s largest privately funded international scholarship program and the Rotary Foundation’s oldest and best-known international endeavor. Since 1947 nearly 37,000 men and women from 100 nations have studied with its support.

While in Tanzania, Leclerc will act as a goodwill ambassador to the people of that region and give presentations about the United States and his schooling at CNU to their Rotary clubs and others there. “This will be a great opportunity for me to observe a very diverse culture and a developing economy, and further my understanding of the different economic systems in that part of the world.”

 An outstanding Honors Program student, who previously won both a $1000 Honors Scholarship and a $2000 Greene Honors Scholarship at CNU, Leclerc plans to take courses in economics, sociology, and perhaps mathematics, while undertaking a service project that assists the community, and involves the Warwick Rotary Club of Newport News, his sponsor in the Rotary competition.

Inspired by the human rights disaster in Darfur, Leclerc co-founded CNU’s thriving chapter of Citizens of the World.  He also took part in CNU’s North African Exchange in July 2006, which brought 20 students from Morocco and Algeria to the University for a month-long cultural and educational experience. This summer, he will visit Morocco and reunite with some of the same students, while learning about their culture, history and religion.