Pitt Honors College Graduate Receives Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship to Study at Oxford University

PITTSBURGH-Zachary A. Morris, a University of Pittsburgh Honors College graduate who earned the Bachelor of Philosophy degree from Pitt's Honors College and School of Arts and Sciences last May, has been selected as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar by the Pittsburgh Rotary Club; Rotary International has assigned Morris to study comparative social policy at the University of Oxford in England. Morris will enroll at Oxford's Green Templeton College in the Department of Social Policy and Social Work to complete the Master of Science degree.

Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarships provide a grant of $25,000 for one academic year of study in another country. These awards are intended to help defray costs associated with round-trip transportation, tuition and other fees, and room and board.

Rotary International is the world's first service club organization, with more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto Service Above Self.

A summa cum laude Pitt graduate, Morris also majored in urban studies and politics and philosophy in the School of Arts and Sciences. He currently is a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs at the Heinz Family Philanthropies. Prior to working at Heinz, Morris was placed through the Coro Fellowship at cityLAB, a "do-tank" that aims to seed economic development in Pittsburgh, and the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh.

In fall 2007, Morris worked as an intern for the chief executive in the Office of the Chief Executive of Allegheny County and in summer 2008, was an immigrant and refugee policy intern in Allegheny County's Department of Human Services.

In addition to the Rotary award, Morris' honors include a David L. Lawrence Scholarship for Study Abroad and a Wilma Binder-Zeder Scholarship for Academic Excellence. He also was a dean's list honoree from 2005 through 2009.

Morris was copresident of Pitt's Somali-Bantu Refugee Tutoring Program from 2007 to 2008, campuswide chair of Pitt's Diversity Committee in fall 2006, and an executive board member of Pitt's Sudan Divestment Coalition in 2006.

Morris' international experience includes serving as an American Jewish World Service volunteer in Pecux, Guatemala, where he studied sustainable development in the refugee village; interning through the Mongolia Field Studies Program in the mayor's office in the capital city of Ulaan Bator; and taking part in the International Honors Program: Cities in the 21st Century in spring 2008, studying comparative urbanism in New York City; São Paulo, Brazil; Cape Town, South Africa; and Auckland, New Zealand.

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