By: Claudia Frost, District Governor Elect
RC of Brunswick
 
Congratulations to Ruby!  Bowdoin ’21 graduate Ruby Ahaiwe received the wonderful news that her Rotary Global Grant Scholarship to attend Johns Hopkins University was approved. Ruby will be studying Public Health and plans to return to her home country of Nigeria to help educate rural women in the area of reproductive health.   
 
Ruby contacted the Rotary Club of Brunswick after her acceptance into the graduate school of her choice: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Even with an academic scholarship from the college, Ruby needed funding in order to attend.
 
A generous philanthropist contributed $10,000 to the Brunswick Rotary Club. The Rotary Club of Umungasi-Aba, Nigeria agreed to serve as the International Partner and to contribute to the Global Grant as well. The Rotary Club of Howard West offered to serve as the host club because of its proximity to Baltimore, the home of Johns Hopkins.  
 
This unlikely trio of Rotary Clubs, and the generosity of District 7780 through District Designated Funds, combined their resources to help this young woman attend graduate school and to make a difference in the world. ‘Thanks’ also goes to everyone in our District who contributes to The Rotary Foundation. Our DDF comes from your contributions.  
This is not the first Global Grant Scholarship involving the Brunswick Rotary Club. Lonnie Hackett, Bowdoin ’14, received a Global Grant Scholarship in 2017 to attend Oxford University’s school of International Health and Tropical Medicine. Lonnie’s work in Zambia has grown from helping a few thousand school children in Lusaka to a Zambian wide program which trains classroom teachers as front-line health workers, and tackles the pandemic as well.  
 
There is often confusion between the Peace Scholar program and a Global Grant Scholarship. They are very different in that a Rotary Peace Scholar is a fellowship which covers tuition and fees, room and board, and all other expenses in a master’s degree or professional development certificate program. This highly competitive training occurs on six Rotary Peace Centers at six universities. Approximately 120 applicants are accepted into the program. There are usually 1000 applications.
 
A global Grant Scholarship is also competitive but is approached through the Global Grant process. All the rules of Global Grants apply including eligibility of the sponsoring clubs, choosing an area of focus, raising funding and Memorandums of Understanding. Much of the writing of the grant is accomplished by the candidate.  
 
Ruby was awarded a Davis Project for Peace Prize through Bowdoin College. Ruby used the grant to return to Nigeria to set up a community health project. Her goal was to address disparities between urban and rural healthcare in Nigeria. The program was built on a workshop created a year earlier with a local hospital in the village of Isiala-Ngwa North where Ruby grew up. “I am really hoping to be at the forefront of leading change for women’s health and reimagining women’s health and maternal health back at home,” Ruby said.  
 
For more information on the Rotary Peace Scholar program, contact Bob Gravino, rcgravino@aol.com. For more information on Global Grant Scholarships, contact Claudia Frost, claudiafrostrotary@gmail.com or Carolyn Johnson, cfj2@icloud.com.