2010: Global Scholar Stephanie Spicer

Stephanie Spicer

photo: Stephanie Spicer

Born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, I am the fourth child in a family of three girls and two boys.  My father is a Consulting Engineer and my mother worked in administration at The University of Auckland but has since retired and is now a full time homemaker.  I went to an all girls' school, St Cuthbert's College, from the age of five until I lefcomments about this paget school at the age of eighteen.  I studied a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and Bachelor of Arts (Geography/Environmental Management) at The University of Auckland. 

After graduating in 2005, I worked as a solicitor for two and a half years at one of New Zealand's pre-eminent commercial law firms.  I gained invaluable work experience but with growing concern for the world's environmental and ecological problems and challenges I increasingly aspired to a career in the environmental field. At the end of 2007 I left New Zealand to travel and reassess my goals.  After talking to various professionals in the environmental field and from my overseas experiences, on my return to New Zealand I decided to apply for Masters programmes in environmental management/policy.  By furthering my study in this field, I will gain a better understanding of the problems our planet faces and the ways in which we may protect the earth through policy and effective management for future generations.

I learnt of the Rotary Global Scholarship through previous scholarship recipients and through Rotarians in my community. Thank you to my Rotary District 9910 for awarding me the Ambassadorial Scholarship to read for an MSc in Environmental Change and Management at the University of Oxford for the 2009/10 academic year.

I look forward to meeting the Rotary members of my host district 1090 and fellow scholarship recipients in the year to come and working with my host club in its various community projects.