Passion for international relations leads Centre student to Rotary Scholarship
Sophia Koppensteiner’s passion for helping communities and people around the world stemmed from a time when strangers and friends showed her family kindness.
From age four to 11, Koppensteiner grew up in Vienna, Austria, but an unexpected move brought her and her mother to the U.S. Arriving in a new country with few resources, they received donated clothes from community members, and Koppensteiner relied on her mother and grandmother, who helped her learn to read and write English.
“That experience really helped me realize how important a support system is,” she said. “So many people don’t have that when coming to a new country. I was lucky. That was where my passion for finding the best way to give back to others comes from.”
Koppensteiner ’26 graduated from Centre this spring with a degree in International Studies and Politics, and she’s headed back to Europe where she will pursue a master’s degree in international politics at Leiden University in the Netherlands with the help of a Rotary Global Grant Scholarship.
She was drawn to the program and university for its proximity to The Hague, the Netherlands political center, third largest city, and home to more than 200 international courts and organizations. Koppensteiner will pursue a master’s in international politics.
“I’ll be surrounded by different non-government and international organizations,” she said. “That’s really why I wanted to be there, so I could be surrounded by this energy and people who are passionate about making change in our world.”
Koppensteiner’s life mission is to uplift the communities she’s a part of. She also plans to go into politics one day and believes that understanding geopolitics will help her make a larger impact.
“This program will help me understand more about the dynamics between countries with a war and peace focus,” she said. “It will help me understand these broader concepts of what leads to conflicts and how it affects the rest of the world.”
Her move to Europe is a return to a familiar setting, and Koppensteiner is no stranger to constant movement and finding community.
As a Lincoln Scholar at Centre, Koppensteiner was heavily involved in many facets of student life. She took part in Student Government Association and served as Senate President, was active in Greek Life, and served as club president of the Centre Democrats and German Club in addition to serving on Student Judiciary.
“Talking to random people and going to every event I could was one of the greatest things I think I got at Centre that I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else,” Koppensteiner said. “My roommates always joked, saying, ‘She’s off again to another meeting or club event,’ which I was because I loved it. You don’t get that anywhere else or at any other time in your life.”
The variety of cultures and experiences she’s encountered at Centre has set up her path toward having an impact on global communities.
“Every class I’ve taken, every person I’ve met has surprised me and changed my worldview a bit,” she said. “I’ve grown in so many ways, including growing in my curiosity and being able to look at the world in such different ways.”
