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The Campus Y at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has selected the 2012-2013 Global Gap Year Fellowship recipients. The fellowship program provides seven incoming first-year students with a stipend of $7,500 to use toward a gap year – a break from formal education between high school and college – committed to service abroad.

The Campus Y at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has selected the 2012-2013 Global Gap Year Fellowship recipients. The fellowship program provides seven incoming first-year students with a stipend of $7,500 to use toward a gap year – a break from formal education between high school and college – committed to service abroad.

The fellowship program was made possible by an anonymous gift of $1.5 million to the Campus Y which provides support for students who would not otherwise be able to fund their service work. The program gives students the opportunity to enhance their leadership skills, develop respect for a diversity of cultures and gain an understanding of what it means to be a global citizen. The seven 2012 fellows were selected from a pool of 40 applicants who were accepted through the early action application process.

Gap Year Fellows develop a proposal with the help of Campus Y staff and attend an orientation session in Chapel Hill prior to departure. Fellows are expected to integrate their experience into their education when they return to campus, with the support of a Campus Y staff member.

Recipients are listed below, alphabetically by North Carolina county and other states:

NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY

Caldwell

Michael Howell of Granite Falls graduated from Caldwell Early College. Howell will volunteer in Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia as an English teacher and to seek out environmental projects where possible.

Guilford

Chryste Ferrara of Greensboro graduated from Northwest Guilford High School. Ferrara will volunteer in in orphanages in Nepal for approximately five months through Rural Community Development Program. Subsequently, she will travel to India for six months to volunteer with the Society for Excellence in Education, a program in Dadawas run by a UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health faculty emeritus.

Mecklenburg

Graham Collins of Matthews graduated from Covenant Day. Collins is interested in organic and sustainable food production techniques. He will pursue service work in two South American countries in order to gain stronger Spanish language skills.

Orange

Leah Berolzheimer of Chapel Hill graduated from Carrboro High School. Berolzheimer will spend the first part of her gap year in Kenya working with Carolina for Kibera, a grassroots community development organization founded by a Carolina alumnus. The second part of her gap year, she will volunteer in a French-speaking country in Africa for language immersion while pursuing her interest in global health and environmental conservation. She will spend the remainder of her year volunteering in Budapest, Hungary with a youth civic engagement organization, Foundation for Democratic Youth .

Carrie Hamilton of Chapel Hill graduated from Carrboro High School. Hamilton will participate in the program Global Citizen Year. She will go to Ecuador, where she will have an apprenticeship with an organization working on environmental issues or women’s rights.

Wake

Keegan McBride of Raleigh graduated valedictorian of Sanderson High School. A Col. Robinson Scholar, McBride will travel to South America in order to become fluent in Spanish. He will volunteer at the UNC Center for Galapagos Studies in San Cristobal, Ecuador, and also hopes to travel to Spain in order to complete the El Camino de Santiago.

OUT OF STATE

Georgia

Virginia Hamilton of Atlanta graduated from the Westminster Schools. Hamilton, a Robertson Scholar, will travel to Ecuador to pursue service work with Thinking Beyond Borders. She also plans to work in a special needs orphanage in China.

Global Gap Year Contact: Richard Harrill, director of the Campus Y, (919) 962-7535, rharrill@email.unc.edu
Media Contact: Leslie King, Communications, Campus Y, (919) 962-2333, leslie.t.king70@gmail.com

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