Alexia Bililies named Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar

Congratulations to Alexia Bililies ’09 who has been named a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar for 2009-10!

From Bedford, Massachusetts, Alexia was a double major in

• International Studies and
  
• Humanities and Arts, and
  
• recently graduated with High Distinction in February 2009
  

At WPI,
Alexia studied Spanish language and culture at Grenada, Spain, and completed an interdisciplinary project on HIV/AIDS prevention strategies in Windhoek, Namibia. In the fall of 2008, she completed her senior project while working on the People’s Pharmacy Project with Caritas Internationalis in Santiago, Dominican Republic. Alexia has also served as an intern with the Massachusetts Public Health Association in Boston and the Bureau of Prisons Federal Medical Center in Ayer. She was a member of Phi Sigma Sigma, Crimson Key, and the Social and Legal Issues Club and served actively as a volunteer in the Worcester community.

As a Rotary Scholar,

• Alexia will complete a Masters in Disaster Management at the University of Copenhagen next year.
• The purpose of the Ambassadorial Scholarships program is to further international understanding and friendly relations among people of different countries and geographical areas.
• While abroad, scholars serve as goodwill ambassadors to the host country and give presentations about their homelands to Rotary clubs and other groups.
  
• Upon returning home, scholars share with Rotarians and others the experiences that led to a greater understanding of their host country.

The Rotary Foundation's Ambassadorial Scholarships program is
currently the world's largest privately funded international scholarships program for university-level studies. Since 1947, nearly 38,000 men and women from about 100 nations have studied abroad under its auspices. Examples of outstanding Rotary alumni include the Bill Moyers, a US journalist; Sadako Ogata, UN High Commissioner for Refugees; Paul Volcker, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board; Carlos Alberto Da Mota Pinto, former prime minister of Portugal; Otto Borch, Danish ambassador to the US; Helmut Jahn, architect; Chiharu Sakai, Japanese pianist; Kerry Healey, former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts; and Roger Ebert, a popular US film critic.

Congratulations once again to Alexia, who joins Akanksha Sharma ’08, Helena Zec ’06, Christin Reynolds ’04, and Karen Kosinski, ’02 as recent Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars from WPI.