Alum awarded Rotary Scholarship
Matthew Barrett '08 has recently been awarded a Rotary Club Ambassadorial Scholarship. Beginning next August, he will pursue an International Masters in Business Administration degree at St. George's University in Grenada.
"I attribute excellent guidance, preparation, and a wonderful blessing to being able to receive the scholarship," Barrett said. "I certainly attribute the wonderful opportunities I had in my four years at PC as a launching pad for other great things to come in my life."
Barrett is currently in Hong Kong, where he is teaching English. As part of his scholarship, he will serve as an ambassador of goodwill in Hong Kong, during his stay in Grenada, and later when he returns to the United States.
While at PC, Barrett majored in political science and history and studied abroad on two separate occasions. According to Edmunds Professor of English Dr. Dean Thompson, the experiences prepared Barrett, a Columbia native, for his Rotary Scholarship and his trip to Hong Kong.
"When he returned from the Semester at Sea program and later from a semester in Costa Rica, he was glowing like Moses come down from the mountaintop; he'd truly become a world citizen, eager to embrace cultures far and wide," Thompson said. "He's a natural for the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship and will do himself and PC proud."
Shickre Sabbagha '86 and Mike Wright '05, former Rotary recipients, persuaded Barrett to pursue the scholarship.
"Not only did I grow and learn a tremendous amount during my fours years at PC," Barrett said, "but this opportunity is a testament of how the entire Presbyterian College community will continue to be influential through the rest of my life."