RELEASED: May 27, 2004

DANVILLE, KY—Nate Olson, a May graduate from Owensboro, Ky., has received a $25,000 Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship to study at a foreign university during 2005-06.

Rotary International offers a broad range of humanitarian, intercultural and educational programs and activities designed to improve the human condition and advance the organization's ultimate goal of world understanding and peace.

Olson, a double major in economics and government, plans to study international relations. He traveled abroad several times during his Centre career.

"The opportunity to study abroad . . . was such an eye-opening experience," he says. "It awakened me to how narrow my outlook on ideas and on world events had been. It was the beginning of a lifelong learning experience."

Olson hopes to study at either Oxford University, the University of Cambridge or American University in Cairo, Egypt. He will know his destination in November. Until then, he plans to work for the Stinson Center, a foreign affairs think tank, in Washington. He previously interned with the Carter Center's Conflict Resolution Program in Atlanta.

While at Centre, Olson founded VOYAGE (Voices of Young Americans for Global Engagement), a seven-member group that hopes to bring their generation to the forefront in discussing and dealing with world issues. His opinion pieces have been published in newspapers across the country.

"Engaging young people, especially in the wider world around them, is not only a uniquely important learning experience, but is something that Americans ought to take seriously because we are blessed with such special opportunities," he says.

Olson visited Ethiopia last summer as part of a VOYAGE project, and in January he visited Israel and the West Bank for an independent study project with David Anderson, Blazer Associate Professor of Economics at Centre.

In addition to his work abroad and with VOYAGE, Olson played the cello in Centre Strings. He was also a member of the student government association, Colonel Corps (admission tour guides), the government and economics program committees, Phi Beta Kappa and the student judiciary at Centre.

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